Illegal luxury timber from Brazil's COP state makes its way to US and Europe, investigation finds

Illegal luxury timber from Brazil's COP state makes its way to US and Europe, investigation finds

By Alexander Villegas

Almost 2,000 container ships with illegally beaten wood from the Brazilian state of Amazonas, in which this year's UN climate summit will take place, have reached Europe and the USA in recent years. This was the result of an investigation report by the London-based environmental NGO "Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)", which was published on Thursday (3rd). The text contained satellite images, records and interviews [...] The post Brazil:…

A report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) revealed that 53,000 cubic meters of the product were sold after serious evidence of clandestine activity in Pará. In recent years, thousands of trees were felled on farms and sites in Pará, sold to local sawmills, then to Brazilian exporters, until they were bought by companies from the United States and Europe. This trade took place in a regulated manner, with the presentation of officia…

The wood, of different varieties but especially of the Ipê species, valued for its durability on luxury outdoor floors ('decking'), will be extracted from unauthorized areas in tropical forests and sold using false references to circumvent official controls. The EIA criticizes European and North American importing companies for not doing due diligence to ensure that the origin of the wood is legitimate, since most of the Brazilian saws and expor…