Who’d’a thought:

Organized crime is now a big player in illegal logging, which accounts for up to 30 percent of all wood traded globally, the UN and Interpol warned on Thursday. In the mid-2000s, some tropical countries reported a fall in illicit forest clearance, but this may well have been a mirage, they said. In fact, criminals laundered profits into tree plantation companies. ... Globally, illegal logging is worth between $30 and 100 billion (25 and 77.5 billion euros) annually, or between 10 and 30 percent of all timber transactions. Among examples cited in the report, some 3,000 companies in Brazil are under investigation for "eco-certifying" illegal timber and exporting it abroad.

This from a new report published by United Nations Environment Program. Adds New Scientist:

Import and export records don't tell the whole truth...When the report's authors factored in the impact of sophisticated concealment techniques of the kind used by drug cartels, they discovered that rates of illegal logging have actually been rising. The criminals have become simply better at hiding their tracks. Common ploys include forging permits, hacking trade databases, bribing officials, concealing timber's true origin, and hiding illegal timber amid legal stocks. International crime organisations that get involved in the timber trade bring considerable resources and expertise. They are attracted by both the profits and the low risk of being caught: shipping timber, unlike ivory or drugs, is not illegal.

Oh merta! Luca Brasi sleeps with the finches! What is to be done? Interpol has established a pilot program called Law Enforcement Assistance for Forests (cutely acronymized as LEAF; great, that’ll scare the mafia) that “will attempt to coordinate the efforts of police and intelligence agencies to fight illegal timber internationally.