Forests & governance
Illegal Logging
Definition
Illegal logging is the harvesting, transporting, processing, or trading of timber in violation of the laws of the country concerned — including logging without permits or beyond concession boundaries, logging in protected areas, use of forged documentation, and evasion of taxes and export rules. It is a major driver of deforestation and forest degradation, undermines legal timber businesses, and is addressed through legality frameworks such as the EU's FLEGT action plan and, more recently, deforestation-free due-diligence laws.
References
definition and regulatory landscape
Overview
What it means
The definition is legalistic by design — legality, not sustainability, is the test — which makes it enforceable across jurisdictions but also means legal but unsustainable logging escapes it.
Policy has evolved from voluntary certification toward binding market measures: the EU Timber Regulation and US Lacey Act prohibit placing illegally harvested timber on the market, and the EUDR extends due diligence to deforestation-free production. Traceability and geolocation data are the new enforcement frontier.
How it is used
The term structures timber-trade regulation, procurement policies, certification schemes, and customs enforcement.
Why it matters
Forest governance fails where illegality pays; legality enforcement is the foundation on which sustainable forestry must be built.