The Environment Secretariat of Pará, the largest state of Brazil's eastern Amazon, announced an unprecedented auction for May 15 of 5,500 cubic meters of illegally extracted timber. The revenues from the sale will be used to fight environmental crimes. Before, illegal lumber was left in the hands of the violating company itself, which let it rot or sold it, even though it was prohibited. In other Brazilian states, these practices continue.

“The violators felt they had impunity. They were able to keep the lumber and they used it clandestinely. Now all confiscated lumber can be sent for immediate auction,” Aníbal Picanço, superintendent in Pará of the Brazilian Environmental Institute, told Tierramérica.

The Institute seized 50,000 cubic meters of lumber in March in Pará. Last year the total was 156,000 cubic meters.