Investigation Into the Global Trade in Malagasy Precious Woods: Rosewood, Ebony and Pallisander
October 2010

Consumer demand for expensive rosewood furniture and musical instruments in China and elsewhere is the primary driver of an ecologically devastating trade in illegal timber. This report shows how this ongoing trade has been facilitated by the complicity of some of Madagascar’s state authorities and weak law-enforcement by the country’s transitional government.

VIDEO

[Rapport en Francais]

Rogue Traders: The Murky Business of Merbau Timber Smuggling in Indonesia.
August 2010

A detailed expose of some of the key players behing Indonesia's illegal timber trade.

Peru's Forest Sector: Ready for the New International Landscape? 2010

Putting the brakes on drivers of forest destruction: A shared responsibility. Copenhagen Climate Talks.
December 2009

The briefing explains how a proposed UN mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) will not work without efforts to address and regulate the global markets that act as drivers of deforestation

Investigation into the illegal felling, transport and export of precious wood in SAVA Region Madagascar
August 2009.

In the period since February 2009, a dramatic increase in the felling and cutting of rosewood has been reported in the SAVA Region of north-east Madagascar. In July 2009, Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency, were contacted by the Malagasy institution, Madagascar National Parks (MNP), to assist their effort in investigating the illegal harvest of precious wood in the SAVA Region.
[ Lire le rapport en Français ]

Demanding Deforestation: An EIA briefing details how illegal timber trade undermines efforts to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and offers recommendations for climate change policy makers.
December 2008

Borderlines: Vietnam’s Booming Furniture Industry and Timber Smuggling in the Mekong Region
February 2008

Undercover investigations by EIA and Indonesian NGO Telapak have revealed how Vietnam’s booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in European nations and the U.S. is driving rapid deforestation throughout the Mekong river region.

Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers: How Wal-Mart’s Sourcing Practices Encourage Illegal Logging and Threaten Endangered Species
December 2007

Based on undercover investigations in China and the Russian Far East, this report describes how Wal-Mart is stocking a wide range of products, from baby cribs to toilet seats to craft sticks, made of wood sourced from forests which harbor the endangered Siberian tiger and where illegal logging and timber smuggling are rampant.

No Questions Asked: The Impacts of U.S. Market Demand for Illegal Timber and the Potential for Change
October 2007

Highlighting the extent to which U.S. demand is fuelling illegal logging and timber trade, this report was presented to lawmakers at the October 16, 2007 Congressional hearing on the amendment to the Lacey Act.

Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique
September 2007

EIA contributed a chapter on Wal-Mart’s sale of high-risk wood products to this Big Box Collaborative compilation, which pulls together 23 groups’ critiques of the Wal-Mart approach to sustainability.

The Thousand-Headed Snake: Forest crimes, corruption and injustice in Indonesia
March 2007

This report exposes how corruption and collusion at all stages of the justice system, from the police and prosecutors to judges, conspires to ensure that the main culprits behind illegal logging in Indonesia remain at liberty.

Feeding Forest Crime: How U.S. imports support the timber barons of Southeast Asia; a supplement to The Thousand-Headed Snake
March 2007

America’s Free Trade for Illegal Timber: How U.S. Trade Pacts Speed the Destruction of the World’s Forests
June 2006

This report reveals how the existing U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement has exacerbated illegal logging and timber trade, including an increase in U.S. imports of wood of questionable origin. It presents specific recommendations to ensure that illegal timber trade is addressed in future U.S. trade agreements with forest-rich developing countries.

Behind the Veneer: How Indonesia’s Last Rainforests are Felled for Flooring
March 2006

Based on months of investigations across Asia, Europe and North America, this report reveals how the world’s largest flooring manufacturers and major retail chains in North America and Europe have stocked products made from merbau wood of dubious origin – likely sourced from threatened virgin tropical forest in Indonesia’s Papua province.

An Update to the ‘Behind The Veneer’ Report: Giant European and North American Manufacturers and Retailers Still Trading Merbau Wood Flooring of Dubious Origin
July 2006

This follow-up briefing describes how seven of the nine retail companies contacted by EIA stopped selling merbau after the release of Behind the Veneer, yet all five U.S. and European flooring manufacturers named in the report continue to sell merbau products, despite not having produced any credible evidence that their merbau is legally sourced.

The Illegal Logging Crisis in Honduras: How U.S. and E.U. Imports of Illegal Honduran Wood Increase Poverty, Fuel Corruption and Devastate Forests and Communities
October 2005

The result of a year-long undercover investigation, this report documents the extent and social impacts of illegal logging in Honduras and how demand from the U.S. market is the primary driver of this problem. It also names the U.S. firms, including The Home Depot, that profit from the trade, and offers recommendations to the Honduran and U.S. government on how to end this crisis.

The Last Frontier: Illegal Logging in Papua and China’s Massive Timber Theft
February 2005

Based on a series of undercover investigations in Papua, Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mainland China, this report details the illegal trade in valuable merbau logs, following the trail from the forests of Papua, the largest remaining tract of virgin forest in Asia, to China, now the world’s largest buyer of stolen logs.

Singapore’s Illegal Timber Trade and the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
May 2003

This report describes Singapore’s role as a hub for illegal timber flowing from Southeast Asia to markets around the world and highlights the dangers for increasing this trade as a result of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

Above the Law: Corruption, Collusion, Nepotism and Fate of Indonesia's Forests
May 2003 (both English and Bahasa Indonesia)