From the forest to the consumer - GVces - Fundação Getulio Vargas

4
The power of public authorities
P
The role played by the
government in the enforcement,
market mobilization and capacity
building for the responsible
procurement of timber
olice officers simultaneously inspect roads and lumberyards throughout
the state of São Paulo. A truck with plates from Rondônia is
stopped by a police roadblock on the outskirts of the municipality
of Colômbia, 600 km from the state’s capital. The cargo has raised suspicions
because its volume is higher than the one stated on the Forest Origin Document
(DOF), which works as the timber’s birth certificate so consumers have guarantee
of its legal origin. The species stated on the document is also different from
the ones being transported. It was 2 pm on a Friday and time was short. Three
hours later a team of inspectors arrived at the lumberyard slated to receive the
cargo in Diadema, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo. They found many
frauds there, including a cargo of Brazil nut trees – an endangered species prohibited
by law from harvest and trade. The inspectors seized the contraband,
issued fines to both the transportation company and the retailer, and arrested
the truck driver.
The operation took place in mid-2010 under the name Operation Canopy
and issued 2.3 million reais in fines and seized 1 thousand tons of timber. It is
just one example of the state exercising its responsibility in controlling the flow
of forest products within regions where they are sold and consumed. “We have
little say on the production of timber in the Amazon, so there is very little we
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