In recent weeks, Brazilian environmental agents in Porto Velho, Brazil seized the equivalent of more than 5,000 truckloads of timber in one of the most heavily logged regions of the Amazon rainforest, officials informed Reuters.
The investigation, launching a year-long project titled Operation Maravalha, spanning across Amazonas, Para, and Rondonia, is anticipated to be the largest operation of its kind in over five years.
During a two-week raid, the environmental protection agency Ibama closed nearly a dozen sawmills and imposed fines totaling 15.5 million reais ($2.7 million).
The objective of Operation Maravalha is to combat illegal logging in protected areas and Indigenous lands with high deforestation rates, outlined Jair Schmitt, head of environmental protection at Ibama.
Aside from targeting illegal activities in protected areas, investigators are scrutinizing timber projects on private lands suspected of falsifying government documentation to conceal illegally sourced native timber.
Post-raid, Ibama intends to suspend illegally-operated timber projects used to launder timber taken from protected areas.
Jair Schmitt emphasized, "The idea behind this operation is for us to contain the extraction of illegal timber in the Amazon, which is the first step to deforestation."
Following extraction of valuable timber, the remaining forest is often cleared for cattle pasture, with profits funding further deforestation.
While the majority of illegally harvested timber in Brazil's Amazon rainforest is sold domestically, some makes its way to the international markets of the United States and Europe.
In the raid in Porto Velho, investigators discovered wood from endangered Amazon species like the ipe that are highly valued globally. The seized timber will be distributed to government agencies and projects.
Under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 2022 commitment to protect the Amazon, deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest reduced. Nonetheless, conservationists caution that illegal logging and fires continue to harm the forest beyond what government data reveals.