European companies accused of selling timber 'stolen' from Indonesia

Mar 23, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. European floorboard producers and retailers were accused on Wednesday, March 22, of selling tropical hardwood that has allegedly been stolen from the impoverished Indonesian province of Papua, according to AFP. Companies such as Junckers of Denmark, Germany's Tarkett and Swedish-based Kahrs are selling illegal timber smuggled from the forests of the resource-rich region, the international Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian forestry group Telepak said. A report by the two non-governmental organizations, titled "Behind the Veneer", explores the multi-million-dollar business of smuggling merbau hardwood, which is renowned for its deep red appearance, from Papua. It alleges that members of the European flooring industry are unable to prove their timber comes from legal sources, accusing them of making misleading assurances that the wood is culled from sustainable forests. Julian Newman, head of the forest campaign at the EIA, said: "Although suppliers and retailers of merbau flooring are not themselves breaking the law, they are profiting from an illegal trade and are misleading their customers in Europe into buying products made from stolen timber. "These companies need to stop duping their customers and must take urgent steps to ensure the legal origin of their wood." In January 2005 alone, enough merbau was stolen from Papua - a province located on the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands - to produce flooring worth nearly Euro 500 million at western retail prices, the report said. It accused international smuggling syndicates, in collusion with the Indonesian military and police, of intimidating local communities into accepting less than Euro 15 for a cubic meter of merbau. The same amount of timber is worth nearly Euro 2 700 when sold as flooring in the European market. "Europeans would be appalled if they knew that the wood used to make their flooring had been stolen from the poor, indigenous communities of Indonesian Papua province," said Arbi Valentinus, Telepak's head of the forest campaign. Mr. Valentinus called on European Union governments to prevent retailers from selling products made from stolen timber. "However, despite repeated promises to act, no law has been enacted, putting the responsibility on consumers to take action and stop buying merbau products that fuel illegal logging," the campaigner said.