What does a $200,000 fine for illegal teak on luxury yachts say about the true cost of forest crime? When penalties are small, companies can absorb them as a cost of doing business, with little consequence for their overall profit margins. Forest crimes are perceived as low-risk, high-reward offences, which ultimately reflects a wider problem […]
Certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) cannot provide assurance that palm oil has been produced in full compliance with Indonesian law. For more than 20 years, the RSPO – the world’s best-known certification scheme for palm oil, intended to assure consumers that palm oil production does not cause environmental or social harms […]
Earlier this year, a UK Government assessment put into stark terms something environmental organisations have warned about for years – the destruction of nature is no longer simply an environmental issue but also poses a threat to national security. The assessment examined how global biodiversity loss and the collapse of critical ecosystems could affect Britain’s […]
Today we’re pleased to share this guest blog by young EIA supporter and A-level student Ethan Grewal, a keen follower of the work of our Forests Programme who was moved to write following his experiences on a recent trip to Indonesia … I recently had the rare opportunity to explore Indonesia, one of […]
The Attorney General’s Office in Indonesia has named 11 individuals and 12 associated companies as suspects in fraudulent exports of crude palm oil (CPO). Investigators allege that between 2022-24, shipments of CPO were deliberately mis-declared as palm oil mill effluent (POME) – the liquid waste from palm oil mills – or other derivatives, obscuring their […]
For more than a decade, the illegal trade in Burmese teak has stood as a stark example of how environmental crime, corruption and conflict intersect within global markets. Recent enforcement actions in Europe and the US mark an important shift – authorities are increasingly recognising that importing timber linked to military-controlled supply chains is not […]