Brasilia, 12 August 2022 - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Brazil delivered practical training workshops on timber trafficking for frontline law enforcement officers from Brazil Customs, Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, and the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) in Belem and Santos, Brazil from 25 July to 5 August.
The activities took place within the framework of the Container Control Programme (CCP) and the Law Enforcement Assistance Programme for Reducing Tropical Deforestation (LEAP), in partnership with INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization (WCO) and agencies that play crucial roles in securing the timber trade supply chain and combating organised criminal activity. The objectives of the workshops was to enhance capacity and interagency cooperation related to forest crime.
During the activities, participants from the cities of Manaus (AM), Porto Velho (RO), Foz do Iguaçu and Paranaqua (PR), as well as Santos (SP) and Belem (PA), exchanged experiences on inspections of timber shipments and forest crimes. They also had the opportunity to improve their skills on topics such as indicators of high-risk timber shipments, wood identification, with a focus on native Brazilian species, international cooperation and investigation, and evidence handling.
Using specialized risk analysis methodology, training participants identified suspicious shipments in both Santos and Belem and conducted physical inspections in conjunction with UNODC and INTERPOL technical experts. As a result of the inspection in the Port of Belem, two shipments of illegal timber were seized and processed by the authorities.
