Ecuador pulls plug on new forestry-oversight system

Over the objections of environmentalists and forestry professionals, Ecuador’s Environment Ministry has scrapped a newly developed system of outsourced forestry oversight, returning timber-industry supervision to government hands. The move came after Ecuador’s Constitutional Tribunal on Oct. 28 struck down key components of the outsourced forestry-control system, which experts here had praised for tightening enforcement. (See “Ruling undercuts Ecuador’s forestry reform”—EcoAméricas, Nov. ’03.) Ecuador’s Attorney General had been expected to advise whether the high-court ruling invalidated a key contract under which the Swiss company Societé Générale de Surveillance (SGS) was conducting supervisory duties such as issuing and reviewing logging permits. The contract allowed SGS to levy fees on logging activity. But government officials reassumed control of forestry oversight before the Attorney General’s... [Log in to read more]

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