Ilegal Logging

A BACKWARDS STEP
How Demand for Merbau Timber is Undermining Indonesia’s Anti-Illegal Logging Policies

A briefing on how timber smuggling scams are undermining Indonesia's anti-illegal logging policies. SMUGGLERS of the luxurious hardwood merbau are finding new scams to circumnavigate Indonesia’s export ban on sawn timber, investigations by EIA and Telapak have revealed.
Timber dealers have claimed the wood is for projects such as housing in Mongolia and even earthquake relief in China to obtain special Government dispensation to ship the timber.
EIA/Telapak is now calling for an immediate halt to these export ‘dispensations’, an investigation into several companies' activities and measures to be taken to stop the undermining of the country’s anti-illegal logging policies.

BORDERLINES
Vietnam's Booming Furniture Industry and Timber Smuggling in the Mekong Region

EIA/Telapak have been probing the trade in stolen timber in East Asia since the late 1990s. Over the last decade, governments around the world have made a raft of pronouncements regarding the seriousness of illegal logging and their determination to tackle it. Yet the stark reality is 'business as usual' for the organised syndicates looting the remaining precious tropical forests for a quick profit.
This report contains new information from field investigations carried out by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and its partner Telapak. It exposes how the rapid growth of Vietnam's wood processing industry is threatening some of the last intact forests in the Mekong region, especially those in neighbouring Laos.

The THOUSAND HEADED SNAKE
Forest Crimes, Corruption and Injustice in Indonesia

Forest crimes in Indonesia involve complex relationships between a number of interconnected participants – timber tycoons, military and police officers, corrupt government officials and politicians, the judiciary and international smuggling syndicates.
The structure is akin to a hydra – a many headed serpent. Cut one head off and another appears. Field enforcement merely tackles the most visible elements. Until the problem is tackled at its roots – the untouchable timber barons – the threat to Indonesia’s forests will remain.