Data on patients hospitalized with acute heart failure in Brazil scarce. We performed a cross-sectional, retrospective, records-based study using data retrieved from a large public database of heart failure admissions to any hospital from the Brazilian National Public Health System (SUS) (SUS Hospital Information System [SIHSUS] registry) to determine the in-hospital all-cause mortality rate, in-hospital renal replacement therapy rate and its association with outcome. The in-hospital mortality rate of 11.7% observed among patients with acute heart failure admitted to Brazilian public hospitals was alarmingly high, exceeding that of patients admitted to North American and European institutions. This is the first report to quantify the rate of renal replacement therapy in patients hospitalized with acute heart failure in Brazil. Volume 10 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1226481 Introduction: Data on patients hospitalized with acute heart failure in Brazil scarce records-based study using data retrieved from a large public database of heart failure admissions to any hospital from the Brazilian National Public Health System (SUS) (SUS Hospital Information System [SIHSUS] registry) to determine the in-hospital all-cause mortality rate in-hospital renal replacement therapy rate and its association with outcome 910,128 hospitalizations due to heart failure were identified in the SIHSUS registry between April 2017 and August 2021 of which 106,383 (11.7%) resulted in in-hospital death Renal replacement therapy (required by 8,179 non-survivors [7.7%] and 11,496 survivors [1.4% p < 0.001]) was associated with a 56% increase in the risk of death in the univariate regression model (HR 1.56 a more than threefold increase of the duration of hospitalization and a 45% or greater increase of cost per day All forms of renal replacement therapy remained independently associated with in-hospital mortality in multivariable analysis (intermittent hemodialysis: HR 1.64 95% CI 1.60 -1.69; continuous hemodialysis: HR 1.52 95% CI 1.42 -1.63; peritoneal dialysis: HR 1.47 Discussion: The in-hospital mortality rate of 11.7% observed among patients with acute heart failure admitted to Brazilian public hospitals was alarmingly high exceeding that of patients admitted to North American and European institutions This is the first report to quantify the rate of renal replacement therapy in patients hospitalized with acute heart failure in Brazil we retrieved data from a large public database of patients admitted to hospitals from the Brazilian National Public Health System (SUS) [SUS Hospital Information System (SIHSUS) registry] and filtered patients hospitalized with acute heart failure between April 2017 and August 2021 The purpose of this study was fourfold: (1) to determine the in-hospital all-cause mortality rate; (2) to determine the renal replacement therapy rate and its association with in-hospital mortality; (3) to evaluate other potential risk factors for in-hospital mortality including COVID-19 infection at admission or during hospitalization geographic location of the hospital; and (4) to analyze the effects of therapies like renal replacement therapy and demographic characteristics on the cost of hospitalization a secure web-based application for building and managing online databases for research purposes intermittent hemodialysis includes both intermittent conventional hemodialysis and sustained low-efficiency dialysis while continuous renal replacement therapy specifically refers to continuous venovenous hemodialysis Follow-up duration spanned the time between hospital admission and discharge or death and hospital location were missing were excluded from the study The Institutional Review Board of the State University of Campinas waived the requirement to obtain any informed consent from subjects given that no sensitive patient health information was disclosed to the investigators (Of The primary outcome was in-hospital death for any cause We also retrieved data on demographic characteristics (age medical procedures required during hospital stay (renal replacement therapy and hospitalization-related costs (in total and per day) Renal replacement therapy included intermittent hemodialysis It should be noted that the reporting of race in the SIHSUS registry follows the racial classification standardized by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) which asks individuals to self-identify within one of the following categories: “branco” (white) “amarelo/asiático” (yellow/Asian) and “indígena” (indigenous) Patients requiring renal replacement therapy during hospitalization displayed several distinctive features: younger age and a higher proportion requiring heart transplantation The utilization of renal replacement therapy showed a declining trend from 2017 to 2021 renal replacement therapy usage exhibited non-uniform distribution across different regions of Brazil with the southeast region having the highest prevalence among hospitalized heart failure patients Figure 1. Study design. Created with BioRender.com Patient demographic and clinical characteristics stratified by death (C) median cost per day of hospitalization and (D) median duration of hospitalization for each federal state of Brazil Renal replacement therapy was required by 8,179 non-survivors (7.7%) and 11,496 survivors (1.4%, p < 0.001) (Figure 3) Intermittent hemodialysis was the most common type of renal replacement therapy employed (6.5% vs followed by continuous hemodialysis (1.1% vs 0.2%) and peritoneal dialysis (0.1% vs all comparisons p < 0.001) Kaplan-Meier survival curve for patients stratified by the need for renal replacement therapy (RRT) The median survival time in patients receiving renal replacement therapy was 30 days (95% CI 49–51) in patients not undergoing dialysis Risk factors for in-hospital mortality (univariate analysis) Hazard ratios with their 95% confidence intervals for the risk of in-hospital death for any cause from a multi-variable Cox proportional hazards model obtained by stepwise selection of predictors Renal replacement therapy was associated with an approximately 56% increase of the risk of all-cause in-hospital death The model included a variable termed “ongoing COVID-19 pandemic” which accounted for HF admissions occurring after the official announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Brazilian Government The slight increase in the risk of death attributed to diabetes was non-significant Because the reporting of all comorbidities is not required in the SIHSUS registry such variables were not included in the multivariable Cox regression model due to their high probability of underreporting For the fourth aim of current study we found that patients requiring renal replacement therapy remained hospitalized for a longer period compared to those who did not require such therapy, as demonstrated in Figure 5A. Other factors associated with a longer hospitalization (Figure 5B) were in-hospital death The duration of hospitalization also increased significantly from 2017 though this effect size amounted only to a 3% or smaller increase with a median duration of hospitalization of 5 days Patients of Asian or indigenous race had shorter hospital stays and a higher cost per day of hospitalization was also associated with a shorter hospitalization The duration of hospitalization was shorter during the COVID-19 pandemic (p < 0.001) (A) Histograms for the duration of hospitalization in patients not receiving (top) and receiving (bottom) renal replacement therapy (B) Estimated effects on the duration of hospitalization estimated with a multi-variable generalized linear model using a gamma-distribution and log-link function The graph shows exponentiated coefficient estimates which represent multipliers for the duration of hospitalization of 6 days for a white male patient with age of 67 years equal to the average age for the cohort Renal replacement therapy was associated with a more than 3-fold increase in the duration of hospitalization The hospitalization cost per day for patients admitted with heart failure was analyzed with a generalized linear model (GLM) with a logarithmic link in the gamma distribution function and with age and renal replacement therapy type included as independent predictors The coefficients in the GLM represent cost multipliers and are shown here as bars The estimate for the average cost of hospitalization of white female patients with a mean age of 67 years (intercept term in the model) was 603 Br$ Heart transplantation during hospitalization was by far the largest factor for cost-per-day increases while less (cost factor <1) was spent on patients of non-white ethnicity In this large nation-wide registry of Brazilian public hospitals with 910,128 records of patients admitted with heart failure we found an alarming mortality rate of 11.7% and a 56% greater risk of death among patients in need of renal replacement therapy compared to patients who did not require such therapy our findings describe female sex and COVID-19 as important risk factors for in-hospital death and highlight the prognosis-modifying effect of heart transplant in patients with heart failure in the Brazilian setting We also report that hospitalizations requiring renal replacement therapy and hospitalizations resulting in death were both longer and costlier 1.28–2.19) compared to those in North America Central/Eastern Europe and Russia (HR 1.15 Among its thirty-four patients on renal replacement therapy due to acute kidney injury 26.5% had a previous diagnosis of heart failure versus 4.8% of 166 non-renal replacement therapy patients The results of our study should be interpreted bearing its limitations in mind Patients were identified according to clinician-judged ICD-10 codes encompassing heart failure which due to the heterogeneity of the disease and difficulty in establishing the correct diagnosis is likely to contain a certain degree of misclassification the reliance on ICD coding for diagnosis is a limitation inherent to all studies that rely on large healthcare databases of real-world information and does not prevent relevant findings from being drawn from these databases Because the SIHSUS registry does not require the reporting of baseline comorbidities the prevalence of many comorbidities of interest that most likely influence the outcome in heart failure are likely to be underreported and therefore were prevented from being included in our multivariable analysis the registry has no information of renal replacement therapy over time and no data regarding drug therapy previous and in-hospital cardiovascular events (i.e. Due to a limitation in the SIHSUS registry it was not possible to identify the number of times a single patient was hospitalized for heart failure and consecutive hospitalizations from the same patient were required to be handled separately We were also prevented from identifying patients receiving renal replacement therapy prior to hospital admission and were therefore compelled to analyze these patients along with patients started on renal replacement therapy during their hospital stay it is important to highlight the further limitations imposed by the database utilized which impeded a comprehensive analysis of both the specific etiology of renal replacement therapy and the background medical therapy in spite of adjusting for a large number of confounders residual confounding may persist due to unmeasured factors that could not be adjusted for By analyzing the records of 910,128 hospitalizations that occurred due to heart failure in the Brazilian National Public Health System (SUS) between April 2017 and August 2021 we report a worrying in-hospital all-cause mortality rate of 11.7% surpassing by twice as much the estimates in European and North American countries was strongly associated with a prolonged hospital stay Considering the uncertain nature of renal replacement therapy's true efficacy our findings highlight the significance of optimizing medical therapy for patients admitted with heart failure to prevent the deterioration of their renal function and the need for renal replacement therapy The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors The studies involving humans were approved by Institutional Review Board of the State University of Campinas The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements The ethics committee/institutional review board waived the requirement of written informed consent for participation from the participants or the participants’ legal guardians/next of kin because no sensitive patient health information was disclosed to the investigators The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: LA-C ML; analysis and interpretation of results: AC-C All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version The authors declare that this study received funding from AstraZeneca The funder was not involved in the study design or the decision to submit it for publication OC-F was partially supported by a National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) Productivity in Research award grant (303366/2015-0) and a Young Investigators Grant from The São Paulo Research Foundation (2015/15402-2) SP acknowledges the support of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Barts Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR203330); a delivery partnership of Barts Health NHS Trust St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and St George's University of London OC-F has received research grants and/or speaking honoraria from Amgen SP provides Consultancy to Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc. All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1226481/full#supplementary-material Kaplan-Meier survival curve for patients stratified by pandemic status with the pre-pandemic period represented in red and the pandemic period represented in blue showing that patients admitted after the pandemic began tended to have worse in-hospital survival (p < 0.0001) The association of (A) income level and (B) longevity indices by state with in-hospital death of patients admitted with heart-failure symptoms was analyzed with a mixed effects Cox proportional hazards model with random intercept term for each federal state Longevity and income-level indices with a range from 0 to 1 averaged 0.83 ± 0.043 Better longevity reduced the risk of death (HR = 0.80 for 0.1 change; p < 0.001) while higher income increased the risk (HR = 1.31 for 0.1 change of index; p < 0.001) Predicting these effects by federal state showed significant regional disparities: (A) higher incomes in the southern states of Brazil were associated with a higher risk of in-hospital death while lower income levels in the north reduced the risk of in-hospital death (B) Better longevity in the south reduced the risk of death compared to the northern states with worse longevity indices Patient characteristics stratified by renal replacement therapy National burden of heart failure events in the United States Burden and timing of hospitalizations in heart failure: a community study Epidemiology and one-year outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure and preserved mid-range and reduced ejection fraction: an analysis of the ESC heart failure long-term registry Trends in readmission and mortality rates following heart failure hospitalization in the veterans affairs health care system from 2007 to 2017 Heart disease and stroke statistics-2022 update: a report from the American heart association Trends in hospitalizations and survival of acute decompensated heart failure in four US communities (2005–2014): ARIC study community surveillance Incidence and survival of hospitalized acute decompensated heart failure in four US communities (from the atherosclerosis risk in communities study) Heart failure in the outpatient versus inpatient setting: findings from the BIOSTAT-CHF study A validated risk score for in-hospital mortality in patients with heart failure from the American heart association get with the guidelines program Worsening renal function and prognosis in heart failure: systematic review and meta-analysis Acute noncardiovascular illness in the cardiac intensive care unit PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Epidemiology of acute kidney injury in critically ill patients: the multinational AKI-EPI study Acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease as interconnected syndromes Incidence and mortality of acute renal failure in medicare beneficiaries Acute kidney injury increases risk of ESRD among elderly Renal dysfunction in patients with heart failure with preserved versus reduced ejection fraction: impact of the new chronic kidney disease-epidemiology collaboration group formula Relationship between heart failure treatment and development of worsening renal function among hospitalized patients and impact of worsening renal function among patients hospitalized with heart failure Characteristics of patients with heart failure and advanced chronic kidney disease (stages 4–5) not undergoing renal replacement therapy (ERCA-IC study) and management of acute kidney injury: a KDIGO summary (part 1) PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Continuous renal-replacement therapy for acute kidney injury PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Current state of the art for renal replacement therapy in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury Investigators S-ACanadian Critical Care Trials GAustralian New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials GUnited Kingdom Critical Care Research G Timing of initiation of renal-replacement therapy in acute kidney injury PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar I Brazilian registry of heart failure—clinical aspects Main results of the first Brazilian registry of heart failure (BREATHE) 26. 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Otávio Rizzi Coelho-Filho b3JjZmlsaG9AdW5pY2FtcC5icg== @Otavio_Coelho_F †The work described in the following manuscript was performed at the State University of Campinas angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors; BREATH heart failure with preserved ejection fraction; HFrEF heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; HR mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists; REDCap Research Electronic Data Capture tool; SGLT-2 sodium-dependent glucose cotransporter 2; SIHSUS Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish URBANDALE – In a deal unique to Iowa a French company and investors will pay $1.165 billion upfront to manage … Home / News / Education a French company and investors will pay $1.165 billion upfront to manage the University of Iowa's utility system for 50 years - speeding up a commitment to wean the power plant off coal and providing the university with millions to spend each year toward attaining its academic goals the Iowa Board of Regents unanimously approved the expansive agreement that will - in a comparison of size - land the university a lump-sum payment twice as big as legislators typically approve annually for general education at all three Iowa public universities combined the UI will not spend that money the same way - instead tapping into it to pay costs associated with the deal and using income from interest and investments to support education The deal with global energy provider Engie and infrastructure investment firm Meridiam in some ways mirrors a deal the larger Ohio State University modeled three years ago Ohio State also secured payments and commitments worth $1.165 billion from an investor and Engie and the University of Iowa is the second of its size,” said Andre Cangucu chief business development officer at Engie North America who noted one of his company's priorities is retaining the 120-some UI utility workers and their combined 1,600-plus years of experience and we count on all of them to come to Engie to help us to deliver the plan that we have for the partnership,” Cangucu told reporters following Tuesday's meeting in Urbandale so we're going to start tomorrow on the journey to bring the employees to change.” The UI has been investigating a potential public-private utilities partnership for more than a year in hopes of securing another source of revenue in light of waning state support increasing competition for a shrinking pool of prospective students and pressure to limit tuition increases The partnership benefits the UI by allowing it to invest the majority of that upfront sum into an endowment it could pull from annually to support strategic initiatives It benefits Engie by affording it a steady stream of income for five decades and access to tax benefits not available to the UI Officials also noted benefits more broadly it's expected that the University of Iowa Energy Collaborative organization the new organization that will provide these services will pay $256 million in Iowa taxes that would have not been paid if this deal didn't take place,” UI President Bruce Harreld said praised the deal and said it could serve as a 'road map” for similar ventures - although regent leaders wouldn't commit to mandating that Iowa State University or the University of Northern Iowa consider a similar path administrators like those at our three public universities continue to focus on innovation and finding creative opportunities to reshape how things are done in higher education,” Reynolds said 'That means exploring new funding streams in addition to state dollars and tuition And the reason I am with you today is to say good work.” The governor's office announced last week she would be at the board office for an expected an announcement and she offered her praise for the deal even before regents actually voted on it Although the university has been discussing and holding public informational meetings on the concept of a public-private utility partnership for months regents only last week received bids from four finalists The board did not publicly release details of the agreement - including the name of the new operator and the lump sum - until the start of Tuesday's meeting the board did not allow public comments before its vote A woman in the audience stood to criticize the regents for an 'unconscionable” decision to move forward without allowing the public to comment on the specifics issued a statement criticizing - among other things - the 'breakneck speed” at which the university was moving toward the partnership Regent and UI officials didn't directly answer a question from The Gazette about why they didn't allow time for public input on the newly released information but rejected any assertions they moved too quickly and too secretively 'We'll have two regents meetings where there will be public comments - the opportunity for public comments … and anybody can sign up to talk about anything during those meetings,” board President Mike Richards said Harreld took issue with any contention the process hadn't been transparent and deliberative 'That's one wave of this that I get a little bit frustrated with that they somehow think that this has been too fast - it's been a year and a half,” he said It's been very transparent and will continue to be.” after which Engie will take over as the UI's utility system operator Although Engie must contribute half the upfront payment - to ensure it has skin in the game - it's partnering with investor Meridiam for the other half creating a new University of Iowa Energy Collaborative Holdings LLC the UI right away will pull $153 million to pay off its utility debt and then another $13 million to pay consultants it hired for the deal That leaves $999 million the university will put into an endowment modeled to increase in value at 4 percent a year - which amounts to nearly $40 million in the first year the UI plans to pull $15 million annually for campus-generated strategic initiatives plus any utility expenses the standard campus billing process doesn't cover That gap exists because the UI must pay its partner a $35 million annual fixed fee in addition to utility expenses because after five years the fixed fee increases at an annual rate of 1.5 percent the UI expects to pay the provider $2.4 billion in just the fixed fee - not including what it must spend on utilities The campus is planning to cover the fee and other expenses through its standard university billing process and with some of its endowment proceeds the university plans to pull as much as $735 million from the endowment over the duration A three-member board will decide specifically how much to pull annually and how to allocate it Administrators have outlined a process inviting applicants for up to five-year grants for projects supporting the UI's strategic plan The university has projected pulling more than $3 billion from the endowment over the contract's life for both strategic initiatives and utility expenses the university has averaged around an 8 percent return over the past decade,” Harreld has said from a very conservative risk-tolerance perspective in order to reduce the long-term downside risk.” When asked whether taxpayers or the public could be responsible for the concessionaire fee if the market turns south and the endowment fails to thrive 'Whenever we're talking about low risk or lower risk - there is risk; there's not no risk,” he said when asked Tuesday for more specifics and ‘09 where we had a credit lockup … we wouldn't spend the money,” he said And so actually we've been planning on $15 million a year on average to come to the university - that would go to zero during that period.” Engie characterized itself as a global leader in providing energy services It also reported a commitment to sustainability that between 2012 and 2018 compelled it to reduce emissions by 56 percent Engie promised to help the UI continue to diversify its fuel sources and efficiency It stated a goal of achieving a coal-free campus by 2023 - sooner than the UI's previously-stated 2025 goal Meridiam is much younger - with a 2005 inception the Meridiam family of companies has offices in nine countries The new collaborative reports that nearly 22 percent of the 'committed private placement financing” for the UI deal comes from Iowa-based investors But the names of those investors are being kept secret Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com including Iowa’s public universities The Gazette has been informing Iowans with in-depth local news coverage and insightful analysis for over 140 years independent journalism with a subscription today © 2025 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved Márcia Foster Mesko was born in Canguçu city She concluded her PhD in Chemistry at Federal University of Santa Maria and has been an Associate Professor at Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) she is the Director of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Brazilian Chemical Society Coordinator of the Chemistry Committee at the Foundation for Supporting Research of Rio Grande do Sul and also Coordinator of the Biochemistry and Bioprospecting Postgraduate Program at UFPel She has supervised 11 master and 3 PhD students has presented at several conferences in national and international scientific meetings and has received more than 15 national and international awards including the “For Woman in Science” from L’Oreal Brazil “2018 JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship” and “Celebrating Excellence in Research: 100 Women of Chemistry” She has published more than 80 peer-reviewed international papers 15 national and international book chapters and 5 patents of innovation She has experience in analytical chemistry for the development of methods for atomic spectrometry and ion chromatography and quality control of pharmaceutical and other industrial products She has worked on developing methods for halogens determination To be updated with the latest news and events from IUPAC Las historias que otros no te quieren contar There are traces of illegal timber trafficking all over Colombia Along the Atrato and Putumayo rivers in the heart of the Colombian Amazon barges often drag trees uprooted from the protected Amazon and the Darién rainforests while heavy vehicles use the main highways and minor roads to transport logs and always evade the controls set by environmental authorities Much of this harvested timber goes to sawmills and warehouses in the major cities many citizens buy these products for their living rooms and bedrooms and thus become part of the chain that is destroying the country's forests Timber trafficking is a multi-million dollar business Its devastating force targets the greatest jewels of diversity: the most valuable and scarce tree species Selective logging devastates particular ecosystems and extinguishes specific types of flora According to calculations by the Institute of Hydrology Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) illegal logging in Colombia causes 10% of all deforestation April is a bad month for businesses in the Bogota’s neighborhood of 12 de Octubre famous for the fine wood furniture sold here The constant rain makes it difficult to promote the products Jorge Moreno is sitting inside his store which measures just three square meters “I buy a pine armchair for COP$45,000 (US$15) and I sell it for COP$70,000 (US$23) With the difference I have to eat and pay the shop rent there is less and less timber being extracted and sold.” most of the furniture merchants in the Colombian capital care little about the origin of the timber “It probably comes from Caquetá or from Chocó We recently received a lot of timber from Chile,” says another merchant The differences are remarkable: “A block of cedar from here is worth COL$180,000 (US$60) and I can use it to make a bed head which I will sell for COP600,000 (US$200) But with a block of Chilean pine that costs me COP$90,000 (US$30) I do the same and sell it for COP200,000 (US$66) Colombia’s timber figures differ from other Latin American countries Since 2014 the country has imported three times as much timber as it uses and exports which has no forestry industry and lacks the strict environmental requirements demanded by markets such as the European Union Anything could pass across the border: wet timber the neighboring country’s economic crisis has hit this Colombian industry hard A few years ago that figure was US$82 million and Venezuela represented 41% of the market “Without them everything is on hold,” says Alejandra Ospitia Director of FEDEMADERAS (National Federation of Timber Industries) an industry association that brings together a large number of the country's loggers Figures from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) indicate that Colombia is failing to fully exploit its forestry potential Only 644,000 hectares are sown of the more than 24 million hectares suitable for the timber plantations The solution to meet domestic demand (about 5.3 million cubic meters of timber per year) has been to open the door to Chilean and Brazilian timber these countries together provide 35% of local consumption Much of the illegal timber that is extracted inside Colombia is laundered at some point in the commercial chain Although the authorities point to the reliance on legitimate timber imports an illegal market also exists for species trafficked into the country according to the Ministry of the Environment a startling 47% of timber sold in Colombia is illegal Each year 2.5 million cubic meters of illegal timber is traded Thousands of logs evade the weak controls of the authorities and end up in the hands of furniture sellers Experts have compared the estimated figures of illegal trafficking with the commercial price of timber to conclude that the business can represent around US$750 million per year That is almost one third of the value that the National Planning Department estimates for the country’s drug trade Ignacio* is a logger from the Caquetá River He extracts “fine sticks” from indigenous land in the Amazon region who obtains licenses to exploit timber from Corpoamazonia the environmental authority responsible for protecting the forests in the area A license authorizes the felling of trees and specifies the areas of ​​the forest where it can occur The document certifies that the activity will not destroy the ecosystem there is a catch: often the logging actually takes place in a protected area of the forest where it is more convenient for the logger rather than in an area that has been authorized these forest exploitation permits end up being used to launder illegally extracted timber from unauthorized forests.  Often the logging actually takes place in a protected area of the forest where it is more convenient for the logger Director of Corpoamazonia: “A percentage of the logged timber is not extracted from the authorized site.” The environmental authority’s jurisdiction includes the southern Colombian departments of Amazonas These extend over 223,000 square[d1]  kilometers a land mass equivalent to the size of Ecuador just 30 forestry officers control this vast area of ​​dense forests and powerful rivers There is only one possible conclusion: too much work left in the hands of too few.  On a trip down the Putumayo River one becomes very aware of something all Colombians already know only too well The lack of controls has seen the Amazon region became the country’s second principal source of illegal timber exploitation Barges loaded with trafficked wood sail along this large tributary which marks the border with Ecuador and Peru Trunks can also be seen floating in the water the municipalities of Puerto Guzmán and Puerto Leguízamo are among Colombia’s 10 most deforested local government areas The information indicates that the timber taken from here ends up in large cities The other principal illegal timber trafficking site is Chocó a department whose rainforests form one of the world’s most biodiverse regions Critical points exist between the source of river in El Carmen on the Western Mountain Range and its mouth in the Caribbean Sea located on the border with Panama in the heart of the Darién Gap these are the second and fourth most deforested areas in the country: in 2016 alone a total of 18,000 hectares of forest were razed The route of timber through this region is long and winding the illegal cargo is transported to Turbo (Antioquia) and from there is distributed to the capitals of the Coffee Triangle The timber extracted from Darién ends up in shipments at ports along the Pacific and from there is transported throughout the country a WWF Peruvian forestry engineer who has been working in the Colombian Amazon for a decade believes that the illegal trafficking is probably in the hands of small gangs They even log trees inside the Los Katios National Natural Park an area of 72,000 hectares located in Darién that is a UNESCO-declared World Heritage Site The timber traffickers probe these deepest and darkest forests to obtain precious and scarce species such as oak All it takes is a simple trick played on the authorities Police checkpoints are dotted along the road from Mocoa to Puerto Garzón Heavy vehicles laden with logs are often stopped to check that the papers are in order On this occasion some uniformed officers flag down a truck carrying a full of timber They request the documents that certify the legality of the load and then allow the drive to continue on his way the officer in charge of the operation confesses that he is unable to differentiate between the types of species and has no contact with any environmental authority The permit stated the driver was transporting sapán timber species and the officer had no option other than to believe it This permit—known as the Transportation Handbook—is required in order to cut and transport timber in Colombia It is issued by the regional environmental authority following a study of the forest The document certifies that the timber comes from authorized forests and that its exploitation does not damage the ecosystem It indicates the volume and species to be extracted the company or individual responsible for the and how long the transport process will take the authorities can to confiscate the cargo In the last two years they have seized an amount that may seem considerable but that is in fact insignificant: 64,000 cubic meters That is equivalent to roughly 1,790 loaded trucks Although the Transport Handbook has been the tool used by Colombian authorities for 25 years even the Ministry of Environment recognizes that it has not achieved the expected results There are many ways to falsify this documentation Miguel Pacheco has been able to identify how the subterfuge works the merchants do not even wait for a forest exploitation permit they contact producers already in possession of papers approved to transport a certain quantity of timber and then use these a kind of blank cheque to justify the volume they actually log in the protected forests “We know there are sites that sell these permits in Puerto Leguízamo (Putumayo) and when they arrive at the checkpoint in Puerto Asís The permit may say '20 blocks of achapo’ but they actually have 50 of cedar And since there is no scale to weigh the truck The difficulties generated by this problem can be summarized in a story told by Yarina Mesa the legal representative of Madera Masecas a warehouse located in 12 de Octubre in Bogota she claims that although the document states that the carrier loaded 77 cubic meters of timber The doubts remain: the driver could have used the same document to make additional sales or several trucks could have carried the same paperwork to justify their loads Although the investigations are still at a preliminary stage some of the clues point to international tentacles in the illegal traffic of wood “There is a route between Colombia and Panama for the trafficking of persons and illegal gold that could also be used to trade timber,” says Luis Gilberto Murillo He believes this phenomenon is also repeated elsewhere on the Pacific “There has been illegal trafficking of timber on the border with Peru,” he warns The investigations are only just beginning the figures indicate that the illegal timber continues to primarily supply the Colombian domestic market And as long as the industry’s potential is not being exploited in a sustainable manner the criminals will continue to enter biodiverse forests to illegally log species for just a few pesos with the signing of the peace agreement between the Government and the FARC whose 2016 disarmament began gradually but coincided with a surge of 44% in deforestation attracted by the profits from illegal timber trafficking  [d1]La versión en castellano no señala que son km2 Visite nuestra tienda acepto recibir los boletines de OjoPúblicocon las mejores historias cada miércoles Las historias que otros no te quieren contar Las instrucciones para restablecer la clave se enviarán a la dirección de correo electrónico con la que se registró como usuario acepto recibir los boletines de OjoPúblico con las mejores historias cada miércoles The man you see performing a frenzied dance parish priest of the Our Lady of Conception Church (Nossa Senhora da Conceição) in the city of Canguçu 2011 as a celebration of the African influence in Brazil JJ found nothing better to do than copy the macumba ritual (Brazilian voodoo) that is made to invoke the Devil At right you see an actual session of macumba also dances around the "altar" with its offerings JJ says the Mass and prepares for the Consecration of the bread - a simple commercial loaf he offers the supposed Body of Christ to be adored by those present in an eccentric way João Joaquin - a red line points to him - attends a Mass for the clergy said by the Archbishop of Pelotas In the insert is his colonial style Church of Our Lady of Conception Archbishop Bergmann receives the palium from Benedict XVI JJ for his macumba Mass or do his superiors who allow it also share responsibility for this sacrilege?