Gov blames fraudulent timber tracking records on “computer hackers”

Computer hackers are helping illegal loggers destroy the Amazon
rainforest by breaking into the Brazilian government’s timber tracking
system and altering the records so as to increase logging allocations,
reports Greenpeace. Greenpeace blogger Jamie Woolley writes that
Greenpeace-Brasil has “flagged up potential security holes in the
past.” Woolley quotes André Muggiati of Greenpeace’s Manuas office.
“We’ve pointed out before that this method of controlling the
transport of timber was subject to fraud. And this is only the tip of
the iceberg, because the same computer system is also used in two
other Brazilian states,” he said.

The Brazilian environment ministry  requires all timber shipments from the state of Pará to have a transport permit, which is tracked via an online system introduced two years ago. The volume of each shipment is logged in a database and deducted from a company’s annual timber allocation set under its management plan. But hackers are apparently gaming the system,
modifying the records for at least 107 logging and charcoal companies,
according to Brazilian federal prosecutor Daniel Avelino who is
bringing charges today. “Almost half of the companies involved in this
scam have other law suits pending for environmental crimes or the use
of slave labour, amongst other things,” he said. The extent of the
scheme is considerable. Avelino estimates that 1.7 million cubic
meters of timber worth 2 billion reais ($833 million) were smuggled
out of the Amazon. 202 people are facing prosecution. . “By hacking
into the permit system, these companies have made their timber
shipments appear legal and compliant with the forest management plans.
But in reality, they’re trading illegal timber which is making the
problem of deforestation worse, and a lack of control and policing in
the areas they’re logging means they think they can get away with it.”
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1212-brazil.html

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