Vietnam has made laudable progress in recent years to shut illicit timber out of its supply chains and so keep access to the lucrative export markets on which its huge furniture industry relies. But new investigations by EIA’s Forests team have revealed that those efforts are in danger of being undermined by high-risk timber entering […]
Today (25 June), EIA had the privilege of attending an invite-only event at London’s Churchill War Rooms, hosted by DEFRA’s Nature Security team during London Climate Action Week to understand about how tackling forest crimes through strong governance is essential to advancing nature security. The session, “Cascading Risks, Connected Systems: Why Nature Security Matters Now”, […]
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 […]
US federal prosecutors have charged UK-based luxury yacht firm Sunseeker International Ltd and its US subsidiary Sunseeker USA Sales with environmental crimes tied to the use of illegally harvested teak from Myanmar. EIA first exposed Sunseeker’s illegitimate use of Burmese teak in 2018 after our investigations found that teak which had been traded in breach […]
As the latest rupture in an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape, military strikes on Iran by the USA and Israel will likely increase pressure on the world’s ability to feed itself – and it begins with synthetic fertilisers. It is barely more than century since the Haber-Bosch process was developed and the industrial production of ammonia […]
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 […]