A new *EIA investigation report shows that illegally harvested **Ipê and ***Cumaru timber is being smuggled into the European Union and the United States in alarmingly large volumes.
Environmental campaigners ought to be paying particular attention to regions where illegality is persistent and on an enormous scale, rather than looking for “deforestation” in places such as Latvia, where forests are managed sustainably and in compliance with all the relevant laws and regulations.
For years, Brazil’s federal environmental protection agency Ibama has been working to curb the widespread trade in illegal tropical timber from the Amazon region. Despite the agency’s efforts, a new report by the environmental organisation EIA reveals that the flow of “illegally harvested timber” is far more extensive than was previously believed.
Vast volumes of Ipê and Cumaru timber harvested illegally in the Amazon rainforest are smuggled into Western markets – particularly in Europe and the United States, where this timber is still used in luxury hotels, high-end decking, premium flooring and even Formula 1 racing infrastructure.
The new EIA report Bootleggers, Brokers and Buyers provides the most comprehensive account available to date of how timber is harvested on indigenous lands in the Amazon region and laundered through a complex network of sawmills and timber exporters before entering global supply chains as legally sourced timber.
EIA’s 27-page report shows that timber laundering is taking place on a far greater scale than was previously believed. Investigators uncovered large-scale illegal logging in the territory of the Munduruku people in the state of Pará in northern Brazil – incidentally, the state’s administrative centre is Belém, which hosted the COP30 climate conference. The illegal logging took place across 5,000 hectares of forest reached by a clandestine 60-kilometre road. High-resolution satellite images showed 1,200 cubic metres of logs stacked along this road, exposing the illegal logging in all its glory.
Our territory is not a commodity!
The investigation reveals how timber is “laundered”, documenting three logging concessions in the state of Pará and proving illegal harvesting and timber laundering. The total volume came to more than 25,000 cubic metres, equivalent to 830 shipping containers. Combined with the information set out in EIA’s earlier reports, the total volume of illegally harvested timber exceeds 78,000 cubic metres, equivalent to 31 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Once laundered, the timber enters Brazil’s trading network. Eleven sawmills were found to have received illegally harvested timber from two illegal logging operators. The sawmills then supplied part of that timber to eight exporters, many of which have been fined for other violations uncovered in EIA’s earlier investigation. Ten of the sawmills have also already been fined. Taken together, these links point to a long-running criminal cartel trading in illegal timber.
For the Munduruku people, the consequences of illegal logging are devastating. In a joint statement, the Wakoborũn Women’s Association and the Ipereğ Ayũ movement call on the Brazilian government to put a stop to the brutal incursions onto indigenous lands for logging. The campaigners stress: “We demand that foreign countries close their doors to products that carry indigenous blood. Our territory is not a commodity!”
The timber reaches global markets unimpeded...
The 27 member states of the European Union and the United States are the destination for the bulk of Brazil’s tropical timber exports. In 2024, for example, their value exceeded 250 million US dollars. Both the European Union and the US have had laws in place for more than a decade that strictly prohibit imports of illegally harvested timber. There is the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) and the US ****Lacey Act (Lacey Act), but weak enforcement of their requirements and minimal checks allow illegally harvested timber to reach the market.
According to Rick Jacobsen (Rick Jacobsen), EIA’s senior US commodities policy specialist, the lack of enforcement is deepening the crisis. The failure of European and US authorities to enforce laws banning imports of illegal timber fuels fraud, rainforest destruction and encroachment on indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon. This not only threatens the future of the world’s largest rainforest, but also creates an unfair playing field for legitimate timber producers who comply with all the existing rules. Jacobsen notes: “We are looking at a system set up to fail. The controls that are supposed to keep illegal timber off the market either do not work or are not applied at all.”
Political will is shifting in Brussels and Washington
EIA found that illegally harvested Ipê and Cumaru timber was bought by importers in France, Portugal, Germany and the United States, who then supplied it to luxury hotel chains, major infrastructure projects and high-end developments. In one case, a US importer linked to the illegal supply chain supplied decking for the VIP grandstand at the Miami Formula 1 race, while European timber buyers supplied Ipê for the construction of a famous bridge in Italy and for a promenade on the French Riviera.
The report has been published at a moment when political will is shifting in both Brussels and Washington. European legislators have twice postponed the long-awaited European Union Deforestation Regulation, and lobby groups continue to campaign hard. In the US, meanwhile, enforcement of the Lacey Act has been weakened, even as officials promise to protect domestic producers from unfair competition. Jacobsen warned that any further retreat in this area will have global consequences: “If the European Union and the US fail to enforce their own rules, they will in effect be rewarding illegal operators and punishing those who play by the rules.”
EIA is calling on the Brazilian authorities to tighten oversight of the timber supply chain and to increase the resources available to prevent illegal incursions onto indigenous lands. The organisation also urges Europe and the US to investigate the illegal timber importers identified in the report and to enforce their own laws and timber control rules rigorously.