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The damage caused by illegal activities and corrupt practices in the world’s forests is a problem of enormous proportions. In many parts of the world, forest exploitation is dominated by rampant illegal harvesting, large-scale violation of trade regulations both domestically and internationally, fraudulent practices abetted or condoned by government officials and other destructive activities in violation of applicable laws. This paper is concerned with one facet of this complex problem–how important is legislation in the fight against destructive and corrupt forestry practices? In this short paper, we explore ways in which the drafting of forestry legislation – both in terms of the substantive content of law and the process by which it is written – can facilitate or obstruct efforts toreduce illegal activities. We propose several legislative design principles that have special relevance to the problems of corruption and law enforcement in the forestry sector.
