>**Austria’s largest timber company was identified as one of the main benefactors and culprits of illegal logging in one of Europe’s last virgin forests in Romania** – with the wood being exported all across the continent.
>
>**“The Wood-Mafia”**
>
>Austrian timber companies have been at the center of **illegal logging and exploitation of protected forests in Ukraine, Belarus and Romania,** as pictured above. With local justice slow and cumbersome, it fell to international NGOs and media to name and shame the criminal activities of these corporations./(C) WWF
>
>Another well-known problem is the exploitation of protected forests in Ukrainian, Romanian and Belarussian forests by Austrian lumber companies. London-based environment-NGO Earthsight has meticulously documented how the firms Schweighofer (now: HS Timber Group), Kaindl/Kronospan and Egger are buying and processing illegally obtained wood. “We have checked trade data, court records and interviewed key witnesses. We could expose that vast amounts of Ukrainian wood, about 40 percent of all timber harvested, is illegally cut,” says Earthsight’s director, Sam Lawson.
An Austrian company actively is participating in the deforestation of the secular forests in Romania.
​
>On May 22, 2014 a public letter from Ukrainian ecological organization Kyiv Ecology and Culture Center appeared indicating that construction of wood processing factory in Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine would require 500 000 tons of gravel to be excavated from local river beds, thus threatening Carpathian ecology.[34] Ecologists have never received any response from company officials. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2015, releases their investigation of illegal logging in Romania. The report implicates Schweighofer as a major promoter and recipient of the destruction of Carpathian old growth forests.[35][bare URL] A comprehensive documentary released by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and RISE Project follows the illegal harvested wood in Romania.
>
>On Feb 17, 2017, Forest Stewardship Council has disassociated itself from the company because of the company involvement in the purchasing and trading of illegally harvested timber in Romania and that this is having a negative impact on the country’s natural protected areas.[36] In the summer of 2017, FSC launched a stakeholder process in Romania, which sets out the conditions under which Holzindustrie Schweighofer may return to FSC.
>
>In response to criticism, the company has presented an action plan for a sustainable timber industry in Romania. Its core measure is the self-developed GPS tracking system “Timflow”. HS Timber Group records the route of all trucks that deliver saw logs to its sawmills. This data, together with photos of the loaded trucks, is publicly available at timflow.com. HS Timber Group wants to prove with this data that it does not receive wood of illegal origin and also adheres to its voluntary commitment not to accept wood from national parks.[37]
>
>An investigation in 2018 by Environmental Investigation Agency found that the company was continuing to buy wood from third party suppliers which comes from Romania’s national parks.[38] Holzindustrie Schweighofer publicly, strongly rejected these allegations. Moreover, the company has made a voluntary commitment not to process any wood originating from national parks. This commitment also includes areas of national parks (“buffer zones”) where harvesting is explicitly permitted by law.[39]
>
>In November 2021, the FSC announced the end of the disassociation and confirmed that HS Timber Group had met all requirements.[40] The blockboard plant in Comanesti, Romania, was recertified again by FSC in January 2022.
I don’t know what happens to Germans and Austrians with this nuclear paranoia.
I would build a reactor in the mid of the Rhin just to piss off them because this nonsense
This is exactly why people hate green activists
Doing that right now sounds like they are trying to outdo Orbán in Putin brown-nosing competition.
On what basis?
That’s the spirit!
Yo german speaking countries, what the fuck guys. Stop dragging us down with your stupid bs
They are right!
It’s really stupid and unfair to make a lot of sacrifices to have really green energy without using nuclear while the other countries just use nuclear putting in danger the whole continent in case of human errors, earthquakes, floods, wars, etc and also put a burden on future generations to keep the radioactive waste safe for thousands of years.
8 comments
The country with the most corrupt companies in Western Europe involved in so many international corruption scandals.
**A little bit hypocritical to consider yourself green when your companies are cutting down the last virgin forests in Europe.**
[Austrian Companies Wheeling and Dealing in Central and Eastern Europe](https://metropole.at/austrian-companies-central-and-eastern-europe/) (article from an Austrian news outlet)
>**Austria’s largest timber company was identified as one of the main benefactors and culprits of illegal logging in one of Europe’s last virgin forests in Romania** – with the wood being exported all across the continent.
>
>**“The Wood-Mafia”**
>
>Austrian timber companies have been at the center of **illegal logging and exploitation of protected forests in Ukraine, Belarus and Romania,** as pictured above. With local justice slow and cumbersome, it fell to international NGOs and media to name and shame the criminal activities of these corporations./(C) WWF
>
>Another well-known problem is the exploitation of protected forests in Ukrainian, Romanian and Belarussian forests by Austrian lumber companies. London-based environment-NGO Earthsight has meticulously documented how the firms Schweighofer (now: HS Timber Group), Kaindl/Kronospan and Egger are buying and processing illegally obtained wood. “We have checked trade data, court records and interviewed key witnesses. We could expose that vast amounts of Ukrainian wood, about 40 percent of all timber harvested, is illegally cut,” says Earthsight’s director, Sam Lawson.
An Austrian company actively is participating in the deforestation of the secular forests in Romania.
​
>On May 22, 2014 a public letter from Ukrainian ecological organization Kyiv Ecology and Culture Center appeared indicating that construction of wood processing factory in Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine would require 500 000 tons of gravel to be excavated from local river beds, thus threatening Carpathian ecology.[34] Ecologists have never received any response from company officials. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2015, releases their investigation of illegal logging in Romania. The report implicates Schweighofer as a major promoter and recipient of the destruction of Carpathian old growth forests.[35][bare URL] A comprehensive documentary released by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and RISE Project follows the illegal harvested wood in Romania.
>
>On Feb 17, 2017, Forest Stewardship Council has disassociated itself from the company because of the company involvement in the purchasing and trading of illegally harvested timber in Romania and that this is having a negative impact on the country’s natural protected areas.[36] In the summer of 2017, FSC launched a stakeholder process in Romania, which sets out the conditions under which Holzindustrie Schweighofer may return to FSC.
>
>In response to criticism, the company has presented an action plan for a sustainable timber industry in Romania. Its core measure is the self-developed GPS tracking system “Timflow”. HS Timber Group records the route of all trucks that deliver saw logs to its sawmills. This data, together with photos of the loaded trucks, is publicly available at timflow.com. HS Timber Group wants to prove with this data that it does not receive wood of illegal origin and also adheres to its voluntary commitment not to accept wood from national parks.[37]
>
>An investigation in 2018 by Environmental Investigation Agency found that the company was continuing to buy wood from third party suppliers which comes from Romania’s national parks.[38] Holzindustrie Schweighofer publicly, strongly rejected these allegations. Moreover, the company has made a voluntary commitment not to process any wood originating from national parks. This commitment also includes areas of national parks (“buffer zones”) where harvesting is explicitly permitted by law.[39]
>
>In November 2021, the FSC announced the end of the disassociation and confirmed that HS Timber Group had met all requirements.[40] The blockboard plant in Comanesti, Romania, was recertified again by FSC in January 2022.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HS_Timber_Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HS_Timber_Group)
I don’t know what happens to Germans and Austrians with this nuclear paranoia.
I would build a reactor in the mid of the Rhin just to piss off them because this nonsense
This is exactly why people hate green activists
Doing that right now sounds like they are trying to outdo Orbán in Putin brown-nosing competition.
On what basis?
That’s the spirit!
Yo german speaking countries, what the fuck guys. Stop dragging us down with your stupid bs
They are right!
It’s really stupid and unfair to make a lot of sacrifices to have really green energy without using nuclear while the other countries just use nuclear putting in danger the whole continent in case of human errors, earthquakes, floods, wars, etc and also put a burden on future generations to keep the radioactive waste safe for thousands of years.