.BRAZIL — Brazil is home to the largest portion of the Amazon, and has approximately 12% of the world's forests, with approximately 3 million miles representing 56% of its territory. To combat ongoing destruction in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil announced a plan in 2023 to expand selective logging over the next two years. 

 A Sustainable Forest Management Plan (SFMP) is essential for companies logging in the Amazon to promote the appropriate use of forest resources. However, some plans can be used to hide environmental crimes. Based on 184 administrative processes, this study, by Vinicius Otavio Benoit Costa, Henrique Soares Koehler, & Renato Cesar Gonçalves Robert in the Trees, Forests, and People journal, showcases how much illegal logging is happening. Its goal was to analyze the main technical and legal irregularities found in the SFMP filed by the Federal Environmental Agency. 

SFMPs are authorized by competent environmental agencies, whether at the federal or state level. To approve an SFMP, the landowner must initially conduct a forest inventory of the area. 

"Once the SFMP is approved, the designated trees can be logged and commercialized. An SFMP account is then virtually created in the forest control system and the volume authorized for logging is converted into timber log credits," says Costa. "Virtual credits (without physical backing) that would be used to conceal illegally sourced timber, often logged from protected areas such as Indigenous lands and conservation units, constituting the fraudulent movement of timber credits." 

Forest management activities are divided into six main stages: plan development, measures to ensure safe and efficient work in forest management operations, pre-exploratory activities, exploratory activities, post-exploratory activities, and monitoring and control. For the study, the main focus was the exploratory phase, which includes activities that begin with the felling of trees.

The exploratory phase contained 74.3% of the irregularities observed in the SFMP analyzed, demonstrating that most of the non-compliances detected occurred after obtaining authorization for forest exploitation. 

According to data released in early August, deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest increased in July for the first time in fifteen months. An area of 250 square miles was destroyed in the Amazon last month, up 33 percent from the 500 square kilometers lost in July 2023.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to put a stop to illegal deforestation of the Amazon by 2030.

During the last 12 months, deforestation decreased 45.7 percent compared to the previous period.