The Forest Governance Integrity Policy::
The FGI Programme
works in forested, timber-producing countries, transit and processing
countries, and end-consumer countries. A long-term advocacy programme, it is
aimed at influencing governments to recognise the damaging effects of corruption
in the forestry sector and to support policies that help fight such corruption.
It mobilises civil society to work towards developing these polices and
monitoring their effectiveness. At a later stage, it will also work with the
private sector to ensure that it uses timber only from legal sources. The
programme is based on the same premise as TI’s other work.
the FGI Programme
recognises that there are major areas where advocacy interventions are needed
in order to strengthen the forestry and timber trade sectors: 1. Reducing
political corruption 2. Reducing foreign bribery in supply countries 3.
Reducing corruption in licensing and concessions 4. Reducing incidence of
«timber laundering» 5. Reducing judicial corruption 6. Improving due diligence
of financial institutions 7. Reducing unsustainable demand for timber and wood
8. Strengthening national/regional forest governance initiatives 9.
Strengthening international forestry and timber trade governance initiatives
and innovations.
Pics :: Monitoring The Forest Issues And The Land Violation
TYPES OF CORRUPTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE FORESTRY SECTOR
Without corruption
there would be very little illegal logging. Corruption is present at all stages
in the lumber production chain:
• Bribes and political influence may be used
either to facilitate logging without appropriate permits or to gain access to
forests through questionable land concessions
• Enforcement officials are bribed to turn a
blind eye to trucks carrying logs
• Corrupt
transactions may similarly occur in order to process and trade the logs once
they have been harvested, in a form of ‘timber laundering’ similar to money
laundering
• Timber
certifiers can be paid off to «whitewash» illegally sourced logs
• When violations
are found, judicial corruption may prevent prosecution and accountability,
leaving citizens without legal recourse
• Financial
transactions also can be corrupted as a way to hide paper trails of sales and
to keep the timber trade flowing.
Acceptance of Inducement
Public officials
who accept inducements can be divided between those who do so in exchange for:
I)
the commission of crime (e.g. accepting bribes to mark
trees outside a concession as harvestable) and
II)
II) the omission of duty (e.g. accepting bribes
to ignore violations, often known as ‘hush money’).
III)
In the
former case, officials are directly and undeniably engaged in illegal acts,
whereas in the latter, officials accused of taking hush money to allow
misconduct often attempt to shirk culpability by blaming their lack of
implementation or enforcement on a ‘lack
of capacity’. This distinction is noteworthy for monitoring and
prevention in that those acts involving payments to neglect duty are often more
socially acceptableand are therefore more deeply entrenched .
In addition to
bribery and extortion, public officials may use their position to engage in
rent-seeking through their involvement, either directly or indirectly, in
commercial forestry operations. Officials may use their influence to obtain
logging concessions for themselves, their family (nepotism) or their associates
(cronyism). Public officials may use their position to control the distribution
of forestry rents — a practice known as rent-seizing (e.g. writing regulations
that favour their own or associates’ companies). This can include state
capture, where the private sector exerts undue influence over lawmakers in
order to obtain favourable policies and regulations. In all cases, especially
the last, the ‘private gain’ from corruption need not be monetary. Public
officials may be motivated to consolidate political power rather than obtain
immediate financial gain; so-called ‘timber barons’ often have tremendous
influence in rural areas, sometimes extending to urban seats of power.
The Role Of The Legistative and Judiciary
The Legislative The Legislative Legislative Parliaments and district assemblies also play a role in the development of legislation as they pass laws which influence the forestry sector, including those related to forestry, zoning, taxation, land ownership, labour, anticorruption, banking and anti-money laundering, freedom of information, the police, the judiciary and election reform. In many cases, legislative committees also provide oversight of the executive. The legislature passes laws, while the executive generally drafts rules and regulations to implement these laws. The two distinct, albeit related, roles entail substantial differences: regulations controlled by the executive are much easier and quicker to change than laws.
The Judiciary
The Judiciary Judiciary Although
not involved in the immediate regulation of the sector, the judiciary
ultimately interprets the laws and regulations that govern the
forestry-chain(s), from the adjudication of land-claims to deciding on the
guilt of operators accused of illegal logging and other forestry and financial
crimes. In some cases, a simple lack of judicial knowledge or capacity, rather
than complicity, may act as an impediment to the successful prosecution of
corruption.
Civil society
Civil society Independent monitoring, whether by formally sanctioned bodies or on the initiative of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and/or investigative reporters, provides an opportunity to expose corrupt practices. Civil society — albeit often the weakest actor, politically and financially — has a strong role to play in fighting corruption. To do so, it requires the implementation of legislative measures such as freedom of information acts and whistleblower protection, to obtain the data necessary for analysis. A lack of information handicaps civil society»s ability to act as a monitor, as well as undermining its advocacy, such as for indigenous peoples’ rights or conservation. Private sector Private sector The literature on corruption often differentiates between grand and petty corruption: between large industrial actors and labourers working in the forest. While approaches for dealing with corruption among the elite as opposed to rural communities may differ, this manual avoids discussion of grand and petty corruption, focusing instead on the corruption risks most responsible for undermining governance.
Given the much larger scale of
commercial logging in relation to community use, it is likely that corruption
at the corporate level has a central role in facilitating illegal logging, if
not the leading role. The transnational nature of the forestry sector means
that an assessment of risk within any single jurisdiction should involve the
role of its actors not only nationally but also in other countries. For
example, any examination of the corruption risks in a country’s forestry sector
should include a review of the behaviour of its forestry companies operating
abroad and an examination of foreign companies operating within its borders.
This transnational nature justifies the regional structure of the FGI
Programme, including major timber supply countries as well as dominant transit,
processing and consumer countries.
Well , that is it
Regards and Thanks
Pics
Shyamal Bhattacharjee
Mr Shyamal
Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at
District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received
his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and
later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at
Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and
completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree
in B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA,
a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur
as a Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but
gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter
added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books
namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak
Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It
published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office
Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta in 2012. He has a
experience of about 35 years in Marketing
Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee
Appreciate your efforts in putting up this a very detailed information about such important sector. Hope concerned authorities are able to derive some thoughts and ideas.
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