Illegal Logging: From Forest to Flooring
What is Illegal Logging and where does it happen?
Illegal logging is when timber is not harvested, processed, and/or transported following national guidelines. Often it involves felling trees in protected forests or surpassing the limit on the number of trees that can be harvested for a certain species. Countries do not always enforce their forestry laws making it easy for illegal loggers to falsify documents. This not highly regulated system is the reason an estimated 23–30% of wood traded globally was illegally logged. Unauthorized clear cutting is a profitable business, worth approximately $51–$152 billion. This revenue goes towards funding money laundering, organized crime, and civil wars.
Though illegal logging occurs all over the globe, there are a several places that are especially high risk. The main hotspots are the Amazon River Basin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Russia.
In Brazil 80% of logging is done illegally by large criminal networks that have armed guards to prevent interference from activists or government officials. Across the ocean in another rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 70% of timber was illegally logged. Despite the government implementing preventative measures, there is a lack of transparency and the laws are not being heavily enforced. Cameroon, a neighbor of the DCR, also has land at risk because the government owns all of Cameroon’s forests, 1/3 of which is allotted to logging companies for harvesting. Far southeast of Cameroon lies Papua New Guinea, where 70% of timber was unlawfully obtained. Logging companies steal land from indigenous people, who own 99% of the land in PNG. These companies have become so influential they even own the national newspapers. To the west of PNG is Indonesia, where 90% of logging is unauthorized. Between 1999 and 2014 Indonesia supplied 219 million cubic meters of illegally sourced wood. The government has made attempts to curb illicit tree felling, the laws that have been passed have not been enforced. Thousands of miles north is Russia, whose far eastern region is the main site for illegal logging. 50% of logging here is done illegally. These criminals are often linked organized crime in Russia. At a conference in 2013 Russian leader, Vladimir Putin said that illegal logging as increased by 70% in the last 5 years.
The Big Players: China, The U.S., and Europe
There is one main factor that high risk countries have in common: they trade their illegal lumber with China, Europe, and/or the U.S. The high demand for wood and paper products fuels the illegal logging industry. The European Union imports 45% of its timber from the Amazon River Basin, however timber only accounts for 20% of Brazil’s legal exports. Even though the U.S. and EU have laws against imported illegal wood, they can get around that by using a third party, China. China buys the illegal lumber from all the countries listed in the above section and manufactures it into furniture, flooring, etc. The U.S. then buys these products from China. Companies have also been exposed for using illegally sourced wood.
Ikea
Ikea made headlines in 2020 when the nonprofit company, Earthsight, published a report documenting Ikea’s use of unsustainable and illegal tree harvesting. The illegal wood was sourced from the Ukrainian Carpathian mountains, which house many endangered plants and animals. It is also one of the last large forests left in Europe. The wood was mainly used to make Ikea’s bestselling Ingolf dining room chair and Terje chair. Though the timber was FSC approved, whistleblowers in Ukraine claim the auditors were bribed. In Ukraine logging companies often log illegally under the guise of sanitary felling. Ikea denies accusations of unauthorized logging, however their products are far from the sustainable mantra they preach. In 2019 alone the company used 21 million cubic meters of wood.
Home Legend
This more obscure company is a supplier for the hardware store, Home Depot. Most of their logging is done in Papua New Guinea, where one third involves clear cutting rainforests. These rainforests are also on land stolen from the indigenous community. After it is harvested the timber is shipped to China where it is made into various wood products. The PNG government has illegally given away land belonging to indigenous peoples to logging companies.
Lumber Liquidators
In 2015, Lumber Liquidators was convicted for the illegal importation of wood and fined $13 million. They were harvesting trees from far eastern Russia in the habitat of the endangered Siberian Tiger and Amur leopard. Lumber Liquidators was also exceeding the legal concessions amount. In 2013, they surpassed the authorized harvest allowance of Mongolian Oak by 800%. The wood was then manufactured in China and shipped to the U.S. To cover their tracks, Lumber Liquidators falsely reported the species they were importing. The laminate flooring they were importing also had poisonous levels of formaldehyde. They ended up paying $36 million in settlements to people who bought the flooring. It is important to note that the company is now under new management, but this is an example of the extensive damage illegal logging can do.
The Impacts of Illegal Logging
Many countries rely on timber as an export and illegal logging leads to $10-$15 billion losses annually. It also decreases world timber prices by 7–16%. Of course not only profits are affected, people are too. Sixty million indigenous peoples rely on the forests for their livelihood. However due to illegal logging their land is stolen or destroyed. Illegal logging is also the cause of 49% of tropical deforestation. This especially alarming because tropical forests hold 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Illegal logging is an underestimated environmental and ethical issue, without serious reforms many ecosystems are at risk.
