Wood from a Brazilian logging company banned several times for violating regulations may have ended up in the Netherlands, according to an investigation by campaign group Earthsight.The bans on logging company Samise stemmed from suspicions of, among other violations, illegal extraction, and resulted in fines and community service orders for the company.Yet Samise’s timber went on to be imported by Dutch companies GWW Houtimport, Van den Berg Hardhout, and Hoogendoorn Hout, via Brazilian exporter Greenex, according to the investigation.Earthsight called for rigorous implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which is scheduled to go into effect at the end of the year.
Two Dutch timber importers are at the center of a new investigation that shows they may have purchased suspect wood sourced to one of the largest logging companies in Brazil, which had temporarily lost its permits and been banned from clearing.
Brazilian logging company Samise Indústria Comércio e Exportação was clearing the forest to make roads and lumber yards months before receiving operating permits, according to an investigation by Earthsight, a U.K.-based nonprofit that exposes environmental and social crime. Employees also allegedly tampered with identification tags before inspections and transported illegally cleared lumber.
