Giving Compass' Take:

• James Fair offers insights into the rising illegal deforestation of tropical forests in Asia and South America during coronavirus.

• How does the more thinly spread presence of NGOs and government regulation during COVID-19 allow for higher levels of illegal deforestation? How can you support the preservation of tropical forests during the pandemic?

• Read about the components of building a movement for conservation. 

On May 15, authorities in the northeastern province of Si Sa Ket in Thailand arrested two Cambodians and six Thai workers for illegally removing a large Siamese rosewood tree from an area designated as a wildlife sanctuary.

The eight men had taken the tree clean out of the ground and tried to persuade the Huai Sala Wildlife Sanctuary officers that they were replanting it elsewhere, according to a report filed by the Asian News Network.

But one of the Cambodian men eventually confessed to hiring the men for about $6,200, with the tree valued at more than $70,000.

Siamese rosewood has been described by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as the “world’s most trafficked wild product,” accounting for a third of all seizures by value between 2005 and 2014.

The incident reveals that, despite the government-imposed lockdowns and worldwide economic stasis as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still both the wherewithal to illegally harvest products from tropical forests and sufficient demand for those products. According to reporting carried out for Mongabay, similar situations are playing out throughout the tropics, with reports of increased activity in numerous countries in Asia and South America especially.

How much of the increased activity has been specifically caused by the lockdown is open to question, but Øyvind Eggen, of the Rainforest Foundation Norway, says he is certain there is a correlation.

“Where government and NGO presence is reduced, it clears the way for illegal activity,” he said in an interview. “We have reports of hundreds of miners coming in on boats on rivers, primarily in Brazil and Peru. Gold prices have increased because of the financial crisis, which is obviously a factor in this, but for the moment, we think that reduced law enforcement is more significant.”

Read the full article about illegal deforestation during COVID-19 by James Fair at Eco-Business.