In Pucallpa, the hub of the illegal timber trade in Peru, dirty wood is laundered by an array of timber traffickers, who range from individuals armed only with connections and an eye for a deal, to major businesses owned by powerful timber barons. None of them, though, could operate without the regional government body charged with protecting the region’s forests: the Forestry and Wildlife Management Directorate (Dirección de Gestion Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre – DIGEFFS).
These regional forestry directorates are the gatekeepers to an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But they work not to protect the forests and regulate the trade, but instead to profit from the ransacking of the Amazon.
“The wood arrives here and it is lost completely,” said a Pucallpa forestry agent, who did not want to be identified for fear of professional repercussions. The reason is simple. “This is where the worst of it all starts — the high-level corruption.”
