Logging is the beginning of a supply chain that provides raw material for many products societies worldwide use for housing, construction, energy, and consumer paper products. Logging systems are also used to manage forests, reduce the risk of wildfires, and restore ecosystem functions,[2] though their efficiency for these purposes has been challenged.

Logging frequently has negative impacts. Illegal logging refers to the harvesting, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including the use of corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission or from a protected area; the cutting of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits.[4] It may involve the so-called "timber mafia".[5][6] Excess logging can lead to irreparable harm to ecosystems, such as deforestation and biodiversity loss.[7][8] Infrastructure for logging can also lead to other environmental degradation. These negative environmental impacts can lead to environmental conflict.[7][8] Additionally, there is significant occupational injury risk involved in logging.

Logging can take many formats. Clearcutting (or "block cutting") is not necessarily considered a type of logging but a harvesting or silviculture method. Cutting trees with the highest value and leaving those with lower value, often diseased or malformed trees, is referred to as high grading. It is sometimes called selective logging, and confused with selection cutting, the practice of managing stands by harvesting a proportion of trees.[9] Logging usually refers to above-ground forestry logging. Submerged forests exist on land that has been flooded by damming to create reservoirs. Harvesting trees from forests submerged by flooding or dam creation is called underwater logging, a form of timber recovery.