BBC Program Tracks Congo Timber, Questions the Effectiveness of EUTR

After six months of tracking illegal logs from the Congo rainforest to western Europe, Raphael Rowe of the BBC's "Panorama" TV program has found the new EU timber regulations to be ineffective in keeping illegally harvested wood out of the market.

Rowe chronicled his investigation for the episode in an article for the BBC, starting with a two-day stakeout at the port of La Rochelle on France's Atlantic coast. There, Rowe had the opportunity to see some logs imported from the Congo. While the logs were marked in accordance with EUTR, the zone markings appeared to have been altered to change the zone of origin.
The company exporting the logs had done this before. When caught, the company claimed the altered markings were a mistake due to human error and paid a small fine. When Rowe asked the company if the La Rochelle logs were part of the scam, they agreed the markings appeared to have been changed, promised to get back with further details, but never did.

Rowe tracked down the importer of the logs, Edwood, managed by Fabrice Gautier. Despite the EUTR's requirement that importers be able to prove the legality of their timber, Gautier would not tell the Panorama team how he could be sure the logs were legally sourced.

"Under the new EU timber regulations the import of this timber into France should have raised a red flag; this is at the very highest risk of what these timber regulations are about. And the operator who was importing the timber should have been held to account," John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, told Rowe. "It's absolutely urgent that France does set up a proper body to deal with it because if France or other countries don't participate properly and effectively in the European timber regulation then of course it will weaken it and it won't work in the way that it was set up to do."

The episode of Panorama titled "Jungle Outlaws: The Chainsaw Trail" will air tonight on BBC One at 8:30 p.m. BST.

In May, the London-based watchdog group Global Witness found that only 300 of Ghana's 800 logging permits met EU timber regulation standards.

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