The arrest this month of 17 members of an alleged illegal logging ring—including a government forestry official—underscores persistent problems with enforcement of Peru’s forestry laws. The three-state sweep on July 12 by police and prosecutors snagged what officials described as a family-run organization that operated a sawmill and included loggers, truck drivers, an accountant, an administrator and a person whose job was to pay off public officials. The arrested forestry official, José Luis Crispín Llanco, was the general administrator of the Forest and Wildlife Technical Administration, the National Forest and Wildlife Service (Serfor) office for Peru’s central Amazon. Police said the logging group bribed national and regional government officials to obtain fraudulent paperwork that made timber appear legal by the time... [Log in to read more]