Source: Cool Earth
The Sierra Leone government has announced a crackdown on illegal logging activity in the country, with the president introducing a total ban on the transport of logs.
According to the AFP, president Ernest Koroma released a statement saying that the impact illegal logging is having on the environment "must be stopped with immediate effect".Under new regulations, logging firms will not be able to export products after "dozens" of illegal companies were found to be operating in the country.
Speaking to the news source, trade and customs officials in Sierra Leone said that "tens of millions" of dollars' worth of logs have been illegally exported out of the nation to countries in the Middle East and Asia.
Illegal logging is one of the biggest causes of rainforest deforestation around the world, with figures from Greenpeace suggesting that in the Amazon alone, as much as 80 per cent of all logging activity could be against the law and carried out by unregulated firms.