Illegal activities at the source include:

• logging of protected species;
• logging in protected or prohibited areas;
• exceeding quotas;
• permit fraud;
• logging without permits;
• logging with illegally acquired permits;
• tax and other fee avoidance;
• destructive harvest practices;
• more extensive logging than needed for infrastructure projects such as roads;
• obtaining logging permits and concessions with documents available on the black market, such as forestry management plans, yield estimations, etc.

When processing occurs at the point of origin it makes tracing the origins of the wood difficult, increasing the risk of mixing legal and illegal timber. 

Timber trafficking networks are often highly segmented, with individuals working at one level unlikely to have a detailed understanding of other parts of the network. In some instances, agents operating from urban areas recruit poachers to illegally fell trees, arranging for transport, food and accommodation. 

Most timber trafficking appears to be done to order, with illegal cutters earning a set fee per kilogram or tonne of wood cut. In developing countries like Myanmar, illegal logging is so rampant it can be considered a cottage industry, with illegal tree felling occurring opportunistically over widespread areas. 

Where large timber companies are present, illegal activity takes place in the shadow of the legal enterprise. Companies regularly:

• log outside of protected areas;
• exceed quotas;
• take protected trees;
• purchase timber from local poachers;
• engage in a range of document fraud to facilitate the export of legal and illegal wood within the same shipment.

Laundering illegally logged wood into the legal international trading system is a process that exploits systemic weaknesses at the state level. Indeed, corrupt forestry practices are often embedded in political institutions, such as is alleged to be the case in Indonesia (Schütte, 2020). Such states sometimes engage the support of parastatal organisations and affiliates to launder trees.

The process earns politically exposed persons and other high-level officials millions of dollars, lines the pockets of lower-level corrupt officials, and supports large and small criminal enterprises throughout the supply chain.