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Gorilla from Africa, under threat from illegal logging
Greenpeace are urging UK timber importers to boycott the Swiss-German Danzer Group. The call follows investigations which found that Danzer are involved in bribery, corruption, illegal logging, suspected forgery of official documents and carrying out business dealings with an arms trafficker, blacklisted by the UN Security Council (UNSC).
Danzer is one of the world's largest international traders in tropical roundwood, sliced wood and veneers and one of the largest suppliers of tropical timber to the UK market. The company sources timber predominantly from West and Central Africa and has timber concessions covering more than four million hectares of rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the neighbouring Republic of Congo alone.
A report detailing the results of Greenpeace's investigations into Danzer's global operations has been mailed to all major UK companies involved in importing timber from the company, and end users who may be using African hardwood products. These include International Timber (part of the Saint-Gobain group), Smee Timber and James Latham. It exposes how the company is involved in:
(1) Bribery and corruption: Internal documents reveal how Danzer's African operations regularly engage in bribery. The Swiss Attorney-General is currently investigating whether the company should be prosecuted under new international anti-corruption laws which make it a crime to 'offer, promise or give a bribe to a foreign public official in order to obtain to retain international business deals'.
(2) Financing illegal logging in Cameroon, through its financial and trade links with logging company Mba Mba Georges, which has been documented as being involved in extensive illegal logging in Cameroon.
(3) Trading with known arms traffickers: Details how Interholco, a Swiss based subsidiary of Danzer, has historically and is still today buying logs trafficked by a known arms and diamond trafficker Gus Kouwenhouven. Dutch born Kouwenhouven was a key figure in the trade in illegal arms to Liberia during the reign of the warlord Charles Taylor. He is subject to a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) travel ban and the UNSC have also called for his assets to be frozen to prohibit him from 'using misappropriated funds and property to interfere in the restoration of peace and stability in Liberia'.
(4) Fraud: Danzer's Liberian partner company, the Inland Logging Company (now dormant), has recently been accused of tax fraud by the Liberian authorities.
(5) Suspected forgery of official documents: Danzer Group employees are suspected to have forged certification of origin and other documents for timber exports from a number of African countries.
Greenpeace Senior Forest Campaigner, Pat Venditti said: "Almost without exception, companies like the Danzer Group have knowingly chosen to continue laundering timber from illegal and destructive sources, often from countries governed by corrupt regimes where rogue logging companies operate unhindered."
"Purchasing timber products from Danzer is like buying the chainsaws that are tearing apart Africa's last remaining rainforests," continued Mr Venditti. "Given the illegal and suspect activities exposed in this report, it is clear the EU must act to ban further imports of illegally logged timber, and companies must begin to avoid timber from companies like Danzer engaged in illegal or suspect activities."
The rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Gabon are the last refuge for threatened species such as the lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants. However, it is estimated that only one third of the original African forests remain and experts consider that three-quarters of what remains is under threat, mostly by the logging industry.
Further information
Read a full copy of the report.
For more information contact Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
