When German boat builders finally complete Sailing Yacht ‘A’, the world’s largest ever, it will sail away with decks crafted from illegitimate teak sourced from Myanmar. At nearly 150m long and 100m tall, the yacht is being built in Nobiskrug shipyard for Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko at a cost of £260 million
An annual report assessing the impact of EIA’s various campaigns during 2015. All of our dedicated campaigns – Climate, Elephants, Forests, Oceans and Tigers – recorded a number of significant successes during the year
The expanding trade in hongmu (rare and valuable “red wood” used primarily for antique-style furniture in China) has driven successive boom and bust cycles all over the world, marked by unsustainable harvest, multiple legal violations (theft, smuggling, corruption) and violence in source countries
Criminality and corruption have swept a flood of endangered rosewood exports from Laos and Cambodia which fundamentally violate trade protections imposed by the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
Legal loopholes in a 2015 Indonesian Ministery of Trade Decree are exploited by a coterie of timber traders masquerading as small and medium enterprises. This significantly weakens Indonesia’s flagship timber legality scheme by exempting 15 product types from requirements to certify timber sources and factory practices
A briefing for the 66th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee, January 2016. Hongmu is the Chinese term for high-end reproduction furniture made from richly hued durable tropical hardwoods, a sector posting a significant threat to the timber species targeted.