Organized Crime Is Responsible For Up To 90 Percent Of Tropical Deforestation, U.N. Report Indicates

With more than 80 percent of Earth's forests already destroyed, saving the planet's natural forests has become a prime environmental issue with activists seeking out the main sources of deforestation. The United Nations Environment Program recently released an alarming report indicating organized crime is responsible for 50 to 90 percent of illegal logging in tropical countries in the Amazon basin, Central Africa and South East Asia.

The UNEP released "Green Carbon: Black Trade" in association with international police organization Interpol. The illegal timber trade, which accounts for 15 to 30 percent of the logging industry, is estimated to net between $30 million and $100 million per year.

Taking into account the many concealment techniques used by the cartels, the report found that illegal logging rates are on the rise.

“Illegal logging is not on the decline, rather it is becoming more advanced as cartels become better organized," the authors wrote in the report's preface.