“Brazil Launches Program to Trace Illegal Logging in Amazon”, 9 March 2017

Authorities in Brazil have announced a new strategy...[, the National System for Control of the Origin of Forest Products (Sistema Nacional de Controle da Origem dos Produtos Florestais - SINAFLOR),]...to reduce illegal logging and timber trafficking in the Amazon, but the plan is likely to face serious obstacles given the magnitude and complexity of the problem...[The]...new program...will regulate and track the entire logging process, from exploration to storage to transportation and exportation...[It]...is intended to prevent the insertion of illegally-sourced wood into the legal market...[and]... will...enable authorities to understand the extent of deforestation in the Amazon...[R]eports of increasingly violent clashes between state agents and loggers. The loggers have also reportedly begun using diversionary tactics like setting fire to huge sections of rainforest in order to discreetly haul wood away from indigenous reserves, which are legally protected from logging.