Smuggling the Amazon
If I was to write about smuggling something out of Bolivia, you would probably expect me to write about problems with illegal drugs leaving the country. Of course, I could also write about more trivial things that, although not illegal in Bolivia, would be considered “smuggled” when the arrive in other countries – such as coca leaves.
But instead I want to link to an item that I read this evening about a different type of smuggling: timber!
Yes, it seems that away from the places usually associated with smuggling, such as ports and airports, smuggling of a different kind is taking place. Trees in the Amazon rainforest are being cut down and taken down the Amazon river to Peru and Brazil.
I have to ask the question: why?
I thought, that those countries had enough of the Amazon rainforest for themselves. In fact, most of the criticism that I read about cutting down the rainforest is aimed at Brazil.
Have the loggers there given up and are fetching their timber from across the border instead? I wonder just how effective the border patrols will be…

