EIA expands its tracking of international environmental crimes to include the timber sector

Last year, authorities in Vietnam indicted a total of 22 defendants for the crimes of smuggling, bribes, fraud and the abuse of public power related to the illegal trade of approximately $71 million worth of timber from January 2021 to January 2024.

This case included 13,376 containers of wood veneers made from acacia, eucalyptus, rubberwood and pine and the defendants include multiple company directors and customs officials who were bribed to fast-track clearance procedures and overlook violations.

Illegal timber being transported in Vietnam (c) EIA

This case is one of many now detailed on EIA’s Global Environmental Crime Tracker, which has been expanded to include new and improved information on illegalities in the timber sector.

The recent changes have expanded the range of information EIA now collects on violations in the timber industry, from seizures and illegalities to land-grabbing and corruption.

The Crime Tracker is a public database maintained by EIA on environmental crime, which is a massive and rapidly expanding global problem, ranking as the third-largest criminal activity in the world, behind only drugs and human trafficking, and generating an estimated $110-281 billion in illicit proceeds annually.

EIA monitors, collects and analyses data on the crimes in the wildlife, timber, plastic waste and refrigerant gas sectors, among others, to help build a picture of the current scale of environmental crime and abuse, tracking incidents, global trends and utilising maps to illustrate the hotspots.

The data is collated from open sources, including from reports, court cases, social media, news stories and from other NGOs, including our Indonesian partner Kaoem Telepak. The new timber dashboard now shows the precise location of the incidents and features improved structure to view each incident.

Here we feature some of the key incidents involving timber in 2025:

• During the past year, a number of stories have highlighted illegal logging issues in Assam, India. Seizures of illegal timber are reported regularly, including illegal teak and Sal trees in September and October 2025, respectively. To make matters worse, there are allegations that in some areas Forest Department officials are playing a role in the illegal logging operations and one report that an officer is at the centre of the operation
• in October 2025, the Nature Lovers Youth Association in Cambodia reported on social media the illegal transportation of timber which resulted in local authorities halting the operation. It is a clear example of how local groups’ intelligence and pressure from social media can have a big impact. The group afterwards said that it believed the forestry officers were allowing the forest crimes to continue and would release the names of corrupt officials in the future
• in November 2025, a new report by NGOs RimbaWatch and Bruno Manser Fonds highlighted the significance of Malaysian companies and individuals in exploiting Papua New Guinea’s timber sector. Allegations were made that they conducting illegal logging, fraud, human rights abuses, non-recognition of customary land rights, police intimidation and more. The full report is available to read online
• Belgium is a well-known route for illegal goods into the EU due to its high port traffic and this is no different for timber. In September, Belgium customs reported it had identified 20 illegal timber imports into the country in 2025, mainly from India, United Arab Emirates and Cameroon. In 2023 and 2024, 28 and 18 violations were detected, respectively
• in February 2025, one of the key certification schemes for timber – the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – announced a new investigation into non-certified Burmese teak that is also being traded by certificate-holders outside their certification scope, demonstrating a possible integrity risk in the supply chain and the labelling of FSC products. This follows on from a similar investigation in 2022, with the most recent probe expanding to include countries in the USA, Asia Pacific, Denmark and Italy. The initial analysis should have been released by now but hopefully will be announced in the near future.

By expanding the information on timber in the Crime Tracker, EIA hopes to make it easier for individuals, from researchers and journalists to companies, to access information on the extent and nature of timber-related crimes.

The Crime Tracker can be viewed on EIA’s website, with the full dataset available for download on request.

Please reach out to us if you have any questions or data that you would like us to include in the crime tracker.