**The paid account is 1 Eur for the first month** (cancel anytime).
The article is in German but it contains images, maps, and links to other sources that are a must to better understand the investigation, the context, and the size of the corruption and theft. Luckily, Google Translate does an adequate job.
The article is also in audio format on Der Spiegel, but sadly, is is only on German.
Here is the text translated with Google Translate:
> The forests in Romania are among the oldest in Europe.
>
> But they are dwindling – more than half of the timber in Romania is felled illegally.
>
> For months, SPIEGEL has traced the path of the wood. It leads to activists who risk their lives for the forest – and entrepreneurs who have made the wood rich.
>
> **How wood robbers are destroying the oldest forests in Europe**
>
> One of the last primeval forests in Europe still stands in Romania. Because wood from protected areas ends up with the Austrian company Egger. Our research shows which tricks the suppliers use.
>
> *By Ferdinand Kuchlmayr , Katrin Langhans , Marvin Milatz , Bastian Obermayer and Lina Verschwele
> 03/01/2023, 6 p.m*
>
> It’s still dark when the investigator gets out of the car. Dogs bark, the air smells of wood fires. Bogdănești, a small village in north-eastern Romania, makes its living from wood. Some here have made the tribes rich, very rich.
>
> The investigator pulls a key from his pocket and taps the tip of a house five times. A man opens it, reaching for the search warrant with trembling hands. He is said to have forged documents for illegally felled timber. From him, the investigators hope , the trail could lead to the backers of the forest robbery.
>
> More than 1,800 Romanian officers turn out on this autumn day, one of the largest raids that Europe’s timber industry has ever seen. There are serious allegations in the room: illegal logging, money laundering, tax evasion. The detective says he likes catching the big fish.
>
> Egger from Austria is one of them, the manufacturer of chipboard is one of the largest in its industry worldwide. More than four billion euros turnover , more than 11,000 employees . On the outskirts of the Romanian Rădăuți, the Egger factory is right next to that of the other industry giant: HS Timber, also from Austria.
>
> The forests of Romania are among the oldest and largest in Europe, bears, wolves and lynxes still live here. But the forests are under massive threat: large-scale clearing is taking place, even in protected areas. According to Interpol, up to 30 percent of the timber traded worldwide comes from illegal sources . I n Romania it is more than half.
>
> About 20 million cubic meters of undocumented timber were felled there every year until at least 2018 . After Italy, Germany is the second largest customer in the European Union (EU), Romanian wood ends up in hardware stores and furniture stores, in furniture stores and carpenters.
>
> Together with the investigative network International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), reporters from SPIEGEL tracked the illegal timber. They met activists who are risking their lives to protect the forest, frightened workers and corrupt officials who do not shy away from blackmail.
>
> Journalists from more than 27 countries were involved in the “Deforestation Inc.” project. In Germany, in addition to SPIEGEL, there are also WDR, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
>
> *»Deforestation Inc.« is an international investigation into the deforestation of protected and threatened forests – and the global industry that makes money from it.*
>
> *Since mid-2022, 140 journalists from 27 countries have evaluated hundreds of documents, reconstructed supply chains and spoken to insiders. In Germany, in addition to SPIEGEL, NDR, WDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung were also involved in the research. »Deforestation Inc.« was initiated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) .
> The German ICIJ members include Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, who also work for SPIEGEL.*
>
> Romania, a Carpathian slope near the village of Moldovița. Until last year there were almost 1900 trees here, they were around 170 years old. Now severed branches lie next to the stumps. The forest was considered particularly valuable , it was part of a “Natura 2000” area , which the EU places under special protection.
>
> The environmental activist Tiberiu Boşutar looks at the clearing like a funeral speaker at an open grave. He knows the company that felled the trees – Saniral, a supplier to the Egger Group.
>
> Boşutar used to be a timber dealer himself, he made a living from clear-cutting. Today he wants to stop him, even if that has already brought him to the hospital. Boşutar has been in the forest less than an hour when a shiny blue jeep stops. Inside sits Gelu Puiu, the man who cleared this forest for clearing. Puiu was state secretary in the Ministry of the Environment responsible for the forests until he had to resign in 2021 due to allegations of corruption and extortion. Since then he has been in charge of the forestry office that looks after this forest.
>
> Research has shown again and again how international companies are driving the overexploitation in the Carpathians. In 2015, activists revealed that HS Timber managers in Romania were accepting illegal timber , which the group denied. In 2018, SPIEGEL reported on wood deliveries from Ukraine that had reached Romania via questionable routes .
>
> In 2020, the EU Commission launched infringement proceedings against Romania, urging the government to comply with environmental guidelines. If you believe Boşutar, nothing has changed since then. The procedure is stuck. In its statement, the Romanian Ministry of the Environment refers to its control system.
>
> In fact, tracking supply chains could be easy in Romania. Every legally felled tree is marked, every forest divided into parcels, the control regulated by law. There are even public databases. But a system is only as reliable as those who operate it.
>
> Years ago, Tiberiu Boşutar installed cameras in front of his house in Moldova to identify wood thieves. They film the lumber trucks that pass the place. Boşutar has turned his one-room apartment into a control center. A screen occupies the small space in front of the double bed. It has noted suspicious transports on graph paper and compared them with databases. In almost every line there is a plus for the trucks that have loaded more wood than indicated.
>
> A scam of the wood robbers: With a single license, a multiple of the actually permitted wood is felled. There is also a permit for clearing in Moldovița. This provides for creating light for young trees with targeted felling. Alone: There are hardly any young trees on the area, they are apparently only an excuse for clear-cutting. “That would be forbidden in Germany,” says forest scientist Andreas Bolte , head of the Thünen Institute for Forest Ecosystems. Romsilva, on the other hand, considers clear-cutting to be legal.
>
> A Romanian forestry expert estimates the market value of the wood from this clear-cutting at 300,000 euros – the possible penalty for overexploitation is a maximum of 500 euros . A discrepancy that is worth it. Saniral left an inquiry about this unanswered.
>
> Ionuţ Ursu is the head of the supplier company, he lives in Bogdăneşti and is easy to find. His last name is emblazoned in gold on the meter-high gates of a villa. Ursu’s company was also searched in September, and he is calm about the investigation: “What we did, we did correctly.” If you ask Ursu about Egger, he describes business with the group as “very good”.
>
> Egger, in turn, states that the group can “guarantee without a doubt the legality of the wood used”. When asked, Egger leaves open whether the company considers wood like that from the clear-cutting to be legal – and how it is otherwise sorted out. The group does not want to comment on the investigations by the Romanian authorities, but points out that there are no allegations against the company. Egger no longer maintains “current business relationships” with some of the suspicious suppliers.
>
> A total of more than 40,000 deliveries were received at Egger’s premises in Rădăuți. When asked, Egger writes that the management of »Natura 2000« areas is »permitted and expressly desired in certain areas«. In fact, felling wood is not forbidden, but EU directives only provide for economic use as long as it is “in harmony” with environmental protection.
If Europe can’t manage that problem how can they ask Brazil to manage the Amazon forest.
IKEA ftw …
This is really sad and Romanians need to raise a bigger stink and make the consequences real harsh. I’d recommend that no lumber should leave Romania. Stop all exports of lumber.
Do not for a second think that the state is not privy to this. Everyone knows about the illegal logging.
Same goes for trash burning. Every now and then you see some news about a container of trash being stopped at the border and turned around. For every container that does get turn around, 100 others are burned for ‘recycling purposes’.
Why are these stories never getting enough traction? As of now the top most post, with 12k is some dumb political cartoon about Brexit. Reddit as always focusing on the important stuff. 😒
Fuck Romanian corrupt cops, prosecutors and judges. They’ve all been aware of the sitiation and chose to look the other way. Cunts.
This video is just one of many showing how the wood mafia works. These journalists did multiple such investigations, but they are the only ones showing the rotten system. Go watch it, ad well as their other stuff (some is in english and they also have a website with more stuff, recorder.ro).
If you want to support some rare, honest and objective journalism, drop an euro for them.
8 comments
Please read [the article on Der Spiegel](https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/rodung-in-rumaenien-wie-holzraeuber-die-aeltesten-waelder-europas-zerstoeren-a-d6b0149e-a843-4f91-ae08-6f9afbcf29f7).
**The paid account is 1 Eur for the first month** (cancel anytime).
The article is in German but it contains images, maps, and links to other sources that are a must to better understand the investigation, the context, and the size of the corruption and theft. Luckily, Google Translate does an adequate job.
The article is also in audio format on Der Spiegel, but sadly, is is only on German.
Here is the text translated with Google Translate:
> The forests in Romania are among the oldest in Europe.
>
> But they are dwindling – more than half of the timber in Romania is felled illegally.
>
> For months, SPIEGEL has traced the path of the wood. It leads to activists who risk their lives for the forest – and entrepreneurs who have made the wood rich.
>
> **How wood robbers are destroying the oldest forests in Europe**
>
> One of the last primeval forests in Europe still stands in Romania. Because wood from protected areas ends up with the Austrian company Egger. Our research shows which tricks the suppliers use.
>
> *By Ferdinand Kuchlmayr , Katrin Langhans , Marvin Milatz , Bastian Obermayer and Lina Verschwele
> 03/01/2023, 6 p.m*
>
> It’s still dark when the investigator gets out of the car. Dogs bark, the air smells of wood fires. Bogdănești, a small village in north-eastern Romania, makes its living from wood. Some here have made the tribes rich, very rich.
>
> The investigator pulls a key from his pocket and taps the tip of a house five times. A man opens it, reaching for the search warrant with trembling hands. He is said to have forged documents for illegally felled timber. From him, the investigators hope , the trail could lead to the backers of the forest robbery.
>
> More than 1,800 Romanian officers turn out on this autumn day, one of the largest raids that Europe’s timber industry has ever seen. There are serious allegations in the room: illegal logging, money laundering, tax evasion. The detective says he likes catching the big fish.
>
> Egger from Austria is one of them, the manufacturer of chipboard is one of the largest in its industry worldwide. More than four billion euros turnover , more than 11,000 employees . On the outskirts of the Romanian Rădăuți, the Egger factory is right next to that of the other industry giant: HS Timber, also from Austria.
>
> The forests of Romania are among the oldest and largest in Europe, bears, wolves and lynxes still live here. But the forests are under massive threat: large-scale clearing is taking place, even in protected areas. According to Interpol, up to 30 percent of the timber traded worldwide comes from illegal sources . I n Romania it is more than half.
>
> About 20 million cubic meters of undocumented timber were felled there every year until at least 2018 . After Italy, Germany is the second largest customer in the European Union (EU), Romanian wood ends up in hardware stores and furniture stores, in furniture stores and carpenters.
>
> Together with the investigative network International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), reporters from SPIEGEL tracked the illegal timber. They met activists who are risking their lives to protect the forest, frightened workers and corrupt officials who do not shy away from blackmail.
>
> Journalists from more than 27 countries were involved in the “Deforestation Inc.” project. In Germany, in addition to SPIEGEL, there are also WDR, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
>
> *»Deforestation Inc.« is an international investigation into the deforestation of protected and threatened forests – and the global industry that makes money from it.*
>
> *Since mid-2022, 140 journalists from 27 countries have evaluated hundreds of documents, reconstructed supply chains and spoken to insiders. In Germany, in addition to SPIEGEL, NDR, WDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung were also involved in the research. »Deforestation Inc.« was initiated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) .
> The German ICIJ members include Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, who also work for SPIEGEL.*
>
> Romania, a Carpathian slope near the village of Moldovița. Until last year there were almost 1900 trees here, they were around 170 years old. Now severed branches lie next to the stumps. The forest was considered particularly valuable , it was part of a “Natura 2000” area , which the EU places under special protection.
>
> The environmental activist Tiberiu Boşutar looks at the clearing like a funeral speaker at an open grave. He knows the company that felled the trees – Saniral, a supplier to the Egger Group.
>
> Boşutar used to be a timber dealer himself, he made a living from clear-cutting. Today he wants to stop him, even if that has already brought him to the hospital. Boşutar has been in the forest less than an hour when a shiny blue jeep stops. Inside sits Gelu Puiu, the man who cleared this forest for clearing. Puiu was state secretary in the Ministry of the Environment responsible for the forests until he had to resign in 2021 due to allegations of corruption and extortion. Since then he has been in charge of the forestry office that looks after this forest.
>
> Research has shown again and again how international companies are driving the overexploitation in the Carpathians. In 2015, activists revealed that HS Timber managers in Romania were accepting illegal timber , which the group denied. In 2018, SPIEGEL reported on wood deliveries from Ukraine that had reached Romania via questionable routes .
>
> In 2020, the EU Commission launched infringement proceedings against Romania, urging the government to comply with environmental guidelines. If you believe Boşutar, nothing has changed since then. The procedure is stuck. In its statement, the Romanian Ministry of the Environment refers to its control system.
>
> In fact, tracking supply chains could be easy in Romania. Every legally felled tree is marked, every forest divided into parcels, the control regulated by law. There are even public databases. But a system is only as reliable as those who operate it.
>
> Years ago, Tiberiu Boşutar installed cameras in front of his house in Moldova to identify wood thieves. They film the lumber trucks that pass the place. Boşutar has turned his one-room apartment into a control center. A screen occupies the small space in front of the double bed. It has noted suspicious transports on graph paper and compared them with databases. In almost every line there is a plus for the trucks that have loaded more wood than indicated.
>
> A scam of the wood robbers: With a single license, a multiple of the actually permitted wood is felled. There is also a permit for clearing in Moldovița. This provides for creating light for young trees with targeted felling. Alone: There are hardly any young trees on the area, they are apparently only an excuse for clear-cutting. “That would be forbidden in Germany,” says forest scientist Andreas Bolte , head of the Thünen Institute for Forest Ecosystems. Romsilva, on the other hand, considers clear-cutting to be legal.
>
> A Romanian forestry expert estimates the market value of the wood from this clear-cutting at 300,000 euros – the possible penalty for overexploitation is a maximum of 500 euros . A discrepancy that is worth it. Saniral left an inquiry about this unanswered.
>
> Ionuţ Ursu is the head of the supplier company, he lives in Bogdăneşti and is easy to find. His last name is emblazoned in gold on the meter-high gates of a villa. Ursu’s company was also searched in September, and he is calm about the investigation: “What we did, we did correctly.” If you ask Ursu about Egger, he describes business with the group as “very good”.
>
> Egger, in turn, states that the group can “guarantee without a doubt the legality of the wood used”. When asked, Egger leaves open whether the company considers wood like that from the clear-cutting to be legal – and how it is otherwise sorted out. The group does not want to comment on the investigations by the Romanian authorities, but points out that there are no allegations against the company. Egger no longer maintains “current business relationships” with some of the suspicious suppliers.
>
> A total of more than 40,000 deliveries were received at Egger’s premises in Rădăuți. When asked, Egger writes that the management of »Natura 2000« areas is »permitted and expressly desired in certain areas«. In fact, felling wood is not forbidden, but EU directives only provide for economic use as long as it is “in harmony” with environmental protection.
If Europe can’t manage that problem how can they ask Brazil to manage the Amazon forest.
IKEA ftw …
This is really sad and Romanians need to raise a bigger stink and make the consequences real harsh. I’d recommend that no lumber should leave Romania. Stop all exports of lumber.
Do not for a second think that the state is not privy to this. Everyone knows about the illegal logging.
Same goes for trash burning. Every now and then you see some news about a container of trash being stopped at the border and turned around. For every container that does get turn around, 100 others are burned for ‘recycling purposes’.
Why are these stories never getting enough traction? As of now the top most post, with 12k is some dumb political cartoon about Brexit. Reddit as always focusing on the important stuff. 😒
Fuck Romanian corrupt cops, prosecutors and judges. They’ve all been aware of the sitiation and chose to look the other way. Cunts.
https://youtu.be/1eYOgsikg_g
This video is just one of many showing how the wood mafia works. These journalists did multiple such investigations, but they are the only ones showing the rotten system. Go watch it, ad well as their other stuff (some is in english and they also have a website with more stuff, recorder.ro).
If you want to support some rare, honest and objective journalism, drop an euro for them.