Forest Crime: Korindo and the trade in illegal plywood from the last rainforests of Indonesia

Publication date: March 2004

Summary
Illegal logging continues to play a huge part in the destruction of the world's ancient forests. Its impacts are devastating: contributing to loss of biodiversity; linked to human rights abuses and organised crime; impacting on the sustainable development of forest producing countries; and undermining the trade in timber from legal and sustainable sources. The World Bank estimates that some US $10-15 billion per annum is lost to Governments each year because of the illegal trade in timber.

Nowhere is the situation more acute than in Indonesia. Despite international political, media and industry attention, the wholesale destruction of Indonesia's last rainforests continues unabated. Even when Indonesian timber mills are shown, through Government investigation, to be profiting from illegally felled timber, no action is taken against them - a result of political corruption and the power of the timber industry. Indonesia's Minister of Forestry admitted on 11 March 2004 that illegal logging was out of control and that emergency measures were now being considered by the Government. Mr Prakosa said many smugglers of illegally cut logs had been caught but released without explanation from the police.

The European Commission is currently preparing measures to combat the trade in illegal timber under the 'FLEGT' Action Plan and decisions will be made, this Autumn, by Member States. Parts of the European timber trade have responded through their own initiatives to try and identify 'legal timber' for the market place, focusing initially on Indonesian mills. But while these developments suggest that politicians and traders in the EU are finally taking the issues of illegal timber more seriously, Greenpeace investigations show how, once again, timber traders in Europe are importing plywood from companies known to be involved in the illegal timber trade in Indonesia.