Report: Hardwood Producers Selling Illegal Papua T

Jakarta, Indonesia, April 5, 2006--According to the Jakarta Post, the massive illegal logging of Papuan merbau timber is being fueled by five giant international flooring companies, which are neglecting to check whether they have bought legal timber. The investigative study by the Bogor-based Telapak and London-based Environment Investigation Agency reveals that five companies, which dominate global sales of wood floor products, are heavy consumers of illegally sourced timber, mostly from Papua. Behind The Veneer: How Indonesia's Last Rainforests are being Felled for Flooring, which was published Tuesday, identifies the five as U.S.-based Armstrong, Danish company Junckers, Germany's Tarkett, the Swedish Kahrs and Canada's Goodfellow. These brand-name flooring firms were unable to prove their merbau wood came from legal sources, the report says. Merbau floor products supplied by the companies are sold across Europe and North America, including in the Home Depot and Lowe's home-improvement chain stores in Europe and North America. "Merbau can only be found in large amounts in Papua's pristine forests. It is obvious these companies have used timber coming from the province that is mostly illegally cut," Telapak coordinator Arbi Valentinus told The Jakarta Post. Last year, Telapak exposed the world's biggest timber racket, a US$900 million dollar a year trade involving massive illegal logging and smuggling of 300,000 cubic meters of merbau timber every month from Papua to China and India. The trade involves high-ranking Indonesian security officials and international financial backers. Merbau is one of the most valuable timber species in Southeast Asia, costing between US$200 and $270 a cubic meter on the global market. The latest report, which was based on an investigation conducted from 2005 until February 2006 in Europe and North America, said two of the companies were supplied from a Malaysian firm, which allegedly backed illegal logging in Indonesia. "Meanwhile, the Indonesian supplier of one of the major flooring companies admits to paying bribes to obtain seized illegal merbau logs," the report says. Arbi said the findings contradicted environmental assurances given by the companies to their customers. "We urge these companies to cease manufacturing, distributing or selling illegally sourced merbau," he said. Despite a government crackdown on illegal logging last year, Papua remains now one of the worst-logged areas in the country, contributing to Indonesia's estimated deforestation rate of up to 2.8 million hectares annually, and depleting a resource worth an estimated Rp 30 trillion to the country. European Commission Forestry Project officer Thibaut Portevin said no laws existed to punish the companies for buying questionable or uncertified timber. "We acknowledge that such practices exist and that the commission is negotiating a voluntary partnership agreement with wood-producing countries and companies to ensure the legality of the timber trade," he said.

Related Topics:Armstrong Flooring, Tarkett

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