REM Annual Report Summaries for ABM Development
The table below is intended as a summary of issues and interactions related to
forest sector activity by the following groups of actors: loggers, government
monitors, central government organs, and independent monitors. This summary is
derived from the REM annual reports for 2006, 2007, and 2008.
The goal of the summary is to capture the key processes and interactions performed
by and among these groups of actors with respect to legal and illegal cutting. Rather
than capture details of particular infractions, the intent is to identify classes of
infractions or issues that can be generalized within a modeling framework.
The next task is to verify that the following summary of issues, interactions, and
goals is complete, and from there, to establish which among the infractions and
issues are the most common or important, and which among the goals and
recommendations are the most pressing or feasible. This will give us a better basis
for modeling studies.
Actor
Logger
Role
 Cut trees
Types: Big
(FMUs),
Medium
(TRP, SSV),
Small
(Artisanal)
Government 
Monitor
(BNC
Issue
 Use unauthorized transport permits to make
illegal logs look legal
 Argue down fines in court, using arguments
such as the inconsistent calculation of
illegally logged volume
 Refuse to sign official statements of offence
 Cut trees that are too small
 Cut trees in unauthorized areas (outside
permit bounds, in different area from
permit, communal forests, etc.)
 Fail to mark stumps of felled trees
 Fraudulently mark logs
 Fail to declare abandoned timber
 Self-declare (and under-report) felled
volume
 Instigate/Accept bribes regarding reporting
of infraction
 Provide inaccurate maps to monitors during
visits
Monitor logging  Fail to track permits effectively, or distribute
sites,
unauthorized permits
processing
 Fail to report infractions
sites, and
 Fail to pursue official statements of offence
Brigades)
timber removal
routes on
planned and
follow-up
missions






Port
Monitor

Certify timber
arriving at port

Forest
Ministry
Organs


Grant permits
Collect taxes,
fines, and fees


(Including
MINFOF,
PSRF, DGE)









when sign is refused and resort to a slower
administrative summons procedure
Fail to use conservation measures or
administrative sanctions, allowing illegal
activity to continue
Fail to properly enter data in SIGIF database
Instigate/Accept bribes regarding reporting
of infraction
Fail to report lack of management plan
Issue statements of offence without
crosschecking tax and duty payments by
logger
Inconsistently record/estimate volumes of
illegally logged timber
Allow unauthorized species, untaxed timber,
timber from invalid permits and timber
from unauthorized locations to be exported
Relocate SSV titles to different areas
Grant TRP to different area as compensation
for unexecuted previous permits
Grant TRPs without prior inventory
Grant TRPs within gallery forests
Grant excessive transport permits
Collect taxes based on logger self-reported
felled volume (without cross-checking)
Mark down imposed fines to much lower
levels in litigation, lower than legal minima
Blocks administrative inquiry by IM into
Govt monitor actions/performance
Reissues permits despite lack of
management plans
Poor communication on tax, fine collection
between PSRF, DGE
Leak information about planned missions to
logger
Independent Monitoring Efforts:



Accompany Government monitors on planned monitoring missions
Observe transaction negotiations/litigation
Conduct independent missions with officer escort


Budget matching for ministry funding efforts in monitoring
Coordinate with ministry to publish results and reconcile results of analysis
(publication of monitoring results subject to reading committee and ministry
approval)
Independent Monitor Recommendations for Improvement:
(these items may be of interest as model scenarios)















Improve coordination of mission planning and follow-up meetings between
Ministry, Government Monitors, and Independent Monitors, as well as
transparency and notification between groups regarding hearings, litigation,
etc.
Ensure protocols are observed on missions, and that SNCFF applied
rigorously
Issue Statements of Offence wherever necessary
Improve access/transparency of documents related to permits, infractions,
etc.
Improve use of SIGIF/SIGICOF
Improve control of permits and reduce the number of unused/invalid
permits in circulation
Make permits more specific to time and place
Apply sanctions more consistently and rigorously
Calculate fines more consistently, and that fine reduction not be brought
below a legal minimum during negotiations, or set a cap on settlement
reductions
Catalog all small permits, and ensure that areas granted in TRPs are
inventoried
Improve monitoring of field document preparation to make sure that
documents reflect actual daily timbering
Permits found to be in breach should be revoked
Repeat and flagrant offenders should have documents and permits seized
Checkpoints should be mutually coordinated and should have lists of valid
permits
Data on taxes, fines, timber, etc., be crosschecked
Questions:
1. How does REM fit into the net of monitoring activities, like with Global
Witness, etc.?
2. What is the process of timber marking? How does it guarantee anything?
What happens when loggers record the wrong date of felling?
3. 2008 report page 23 – ‘160m margin’ – is this a general limit?
4. 2007 report page 13 – ‘4 hours’ to inspect a concession – is this a general
limit?
5. In TRPs the logger is actually ‘buying’ the wood from the state? Rather than
in FMUs where they are ‘buying the right to cut’ the wood through the felling
tax?
6. How do Federal and Provincial Brigades differ in their resources or potential
to execute monitoring missions?
7. In what ways do multiple loggers (of different scales, perhaps) interact in the
same spatial area?