Officials target illicit logging
Brazil’s environment minister led a crackdown on illegal timber businesses in the Amazon, several days after loggers ransacked government offices and escaped with contraband wood.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc shut down two sawmills in Paragominas in the northern state of Para and impounded 105,900 cubic feet of tropical wood. He was flanked by police officers and environmental protection agents.
The move is part of the government’s uphill battle to try to break the supply chain of illegal wood cut by tens of thousands of loggers, ranchers and farmers and consumed by millions of people in Brazil and abroad.
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