WASHINGTON, D.C.—In December, 47 representatives from multiple Mozambique and U.S. government agencies shared challenges and solutions to preventing and combating illegal logging as part of a workshop organized, in part, by International Programs. The workshop drew a vast swath of government representatives, ranging from judges, prosecutors, investigators and lawyers to biologists, rangers, customs agents and tax representatives. Two Forest Service law enforcement officers, Phil Huff and Jody Bandy, shared their experiences in investigating illegal wood harvesting and trade in the United States.

Illegal logging spans jurisdictions and nations, and combating the harvesting, shipping, processing and trading of illegal wood takes multi-agency and transnational collaboration. It is one of the most lucrative transnational crimes. In Mozambique, the practice decimates ecosystems and robs the government and people of Mozambique of much-needed resources and revenue.

The U.S. is a massive consumer of forest products, much of which come from high-risk countries like Mozambique. Non-governmental organization Forest Trends has assigned an Illegal Deforestation and Associated Trade Risk score of 81.6 out of 100 for Mozambique and a country rank of 178 out of 211 countries assessed—the risk that timber from Mozambique was illegally harvested is high.

By training judges in central and southern provinces of Mozambique, in the country has seen increased penalties for illegal logging and poaching. Mozambique Supreme Court Justice Luis Mabote opened the five-day workshop by imploring participants to get organized to stop illegal logging and organized crime.

“Together we can find best practices to fight. We are calibrating our machine against organized crime. Organized crime devises strategies. We need to be prepared. We need technical readiness, and we can’t act in silos,” said Justice Mabote.

The workshop was designed to do exactly as Justice Mabote pled: help organize government actors to stop organized crime. Participants from across multiple agencies and disciplines worked together to investigate environmental crime scenarios. They used an investigative plan to keep their teams on the same page.

The U.S. Department of Justice workshop lead, Elinor Colbourn, introduced the investigative plan and said she and her team only recently started using the tool to speed up prosecution and keep a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary team on track. “I meet with my team every two weeks to check in on the plan. It’s a living document. It changes as the investigation proceeds,” said Colbourn.

Colbourn and her DoJ Environmental Crimes Section prosecute Lacey Act violators and build capacity and networks for combating organized environmental crime globally. The workshop and scenarios helped Mozambiquan prosecutors and investigators connect to each other and build a network for tackling environmental crime across Mozambique.

The workshop also helped U.S. government agencies connect to the partners they need for combatting illegal logging globally. It was part of a multi-year effort by the Forest Service and USAID’s SPEED program to build capacity within Mozambique’s law enforcement ministries for combating wildlife and timber trafficking.

*Forest Trends’ IDAT Risk website, as downloaded Jan. 3, 2024.