Earthsight

NEW REPORT OUT TODAY 🪵🪓🩸 The EU trade in blood-stained birch plywood is a ‘gold mine’💰 Our undercover investigation reveals that €1.5bn of sanctions-busting Russian birch plywood has been laundered into the EU following the brutal invasion of Ukraine. Read the report 🔗 https://bit.ly/4aqVB1U 

🚨 Back to the streets. Back to protest mode. Today, we stood in front of the European Commission to say #NoToOmnibus. Tomorrow, the Commission is set to unveil the #Omnibus Simplification Package—but let’s call it what it is: a full-scale deregulation plan designed to dismantle corporate accountability and abandon the EU’s #GreenDeal commitments. We've seen the leaked text, and it is dramatic for the #CSDDD. It renders the directive meaningless, as it eliminates almost ALL protection of human rights, climate and environment. This proposal has nothing to do with simplification but it is stripping all key elements of the directive. This package threatens to roll back key worker protection, access to justice for victims of corporate abuse, environmental safeguards and climate obligations for large companies. We want an EU that leads on the protection of people & planet. No backtracking, period.

In cooperation with Ecologistas en Acción and Mighty Earth, we have alerted Spanish authorities about the country's blood-stained birch problem. Spain is the second largest importer of likely illegal Russian plywood in the EU and its authorities must urgently crack down on the trade. Read more 🔗 https://bit.ly/4hSCZuu Turkey, Kazakhstan and China are important laundering countries for sanctioned Russian birch. EU trade data shows that imports of birch plywood from these 3 countries have boomed since sanctions against Russia took effect in July 2022. Routes dubbed 'Silk Road' and 'Oriental Bazaar' clean blood-timber so it can be imported into Spain and other EU countries. Our enforcement alert to Spanish authorities included evidence of Chinese launderers selling Segezha's plywood on its behalf. Whilst investigating undercover for Blood-stained birch, we were shown a Chinese warehouse stacked full of Russian plywood. A Segezha sales operative also told us how he routes plywood to EU clients via Turkey and China. Yesterday there was a big win in the fight against illegal birch entering the EU. Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the oligarch who controls Segezha - Russia's largest logging firm, was sanctioned by the EU. 🙌 But there's still work to be done. Read more about our investigation into this clandestine trade and what needs to be done to stop it 🔗 https://bit.ly/4aqVB1U

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of the Ukraine invasion. Following the invasion, the EU sanctioned Russian wood - but failed to properly enforce its ban. Our latest report, ‘Blood-stained birch,’ uncovers the clandestine trade in the most valuable sanctioned Russian wood product – birch plywood. We went undercover to reveal actors at every stage of the supply chain, exposing the producers, launderers and EU countries benefitting from wood that funds the war-mongering Russian regime. We found that plywood from 7 of the top 10 Russian manufacturing giants is still sold in the EU. This includes Sveza and Segezha- two firms connected to Russian oligarchs who met with Putin on the day of the Ukraine invasion. ⬇️ The plywood makes its way into the EU via laundering ‘middleman’ countries such as Kazakhstan, China and Turkey, where it gets cleaned and reshipped by companies such as Intop Group, Initiative 2015 and Tianma Lvijan. ⬇️ Illegal, blood-stained birch plywood is bought by EU firms and used to make kitchens, flooring, furniture and toys for unsuspecting EU customers. Explore our undercover investigation and learn what the EU must do to end this war-fuelling trade 🔗 https://bit.ly/4aqVB1U

OUT SOON 📺 Earthsight’s Blood-stained birch report will be on primetime Polish TV! Poland’s biggest TV outlet goes on the trail to find conflict timber from Russia, in a long-form investigative piece to be broadcast tomorrow. Poland is by far the largest importer of sanctioned wood and must use its EU presidency to ensure better sanctions enforcement at home and across Europe. Catch it on Saturday 1st March at 20:00 CET on TVN24 Superwizjer. https://bit.ly/4k72GJv

⚠️ Poland has tightened checks on countries at risk of being used to launder Russian wood. The President approved a new law just one week after our latest report that exposed Polish conflict plywood imports. While welcome, more checks without penalties won't solve the problem. Poland’s imports of birch ply from China - a notorious laundering route for Russian wood - DOUBLED last year. It is not yet known which countries will be considered 'at risk' or whether China will be one of them. Learn how Chinese firms clean Russian wood in Blood-stained birch 🔗 https://bit.ly/4gO9QPR

New 2024 data published by our partner Auriga Nusantara shows a worrying increase in deforestation across Indonesia since 2023. Key findings include: 1️⃣ The highest increase in deforestation between 2023-24 occurred on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. 2️⃣ Timber plantation expansion was the greatest cause of deforestation in 2024, partly due to a rise in biomass demand for energy production. 3️⃣ Oil palm development continues to drive deforestation in Indonesia, responsible for 14% of deforestation in 2024. This is expected to rise in 2025 following public endorsement from the President. 4️⃣ Illegal deforestation continues to go unchecked in conservation areas, with 7,704 ha identified in protected areas in 2024.  5️⃣ Endangered species such as the Bornean orangutan, the Sumatran orangutan and the Sumatran tiger are most exposed to the harmful impacts of deforestation. 6️⃣ Recent decades have seen efforts by Europe and the US to tackle deforestation through banning trade in timber from illegal deforestation. But in 2024, up to 97% of forest loss in Indonesia was legally sanctioned, showing that legality alone is no guarantee of sustainability and highlighting the need for efforts like the EU Deforestation Regulation. 📖 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gNVP2hyz

𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗼𝗺? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗨 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 🚨 HAPPENING NOW: As the European Commission hosts its 'Simplification Roundtable' today, the focus is on gathering input for its upcoming #omnibus proposal, aimed at 'simplifying' the #CSDDD, #CSRD, and #EU Taxonomy. This proposal is set to be published on February 26th. 🚩 The meeting, hosted by Commissioner Dombrovskis, has a participant list heavily skewed toward large corporations, with only 10 NGOs invited. This raises serious concerns about who is shaping the policies that will impact society, with corporate interests seemingly taking precedence. The lack of transparency in the process highlights a worrying imbalance in policymaking. 🚩 What's more concerning is that this is just the beginning—according to the Commission, this is "the first of a series of Simplification Omnibus Packages". Earthsight’s investigations have exposed corporate actors' complicity in human rights violations and environmental destruction, underscoring the urgent need for strong, enforceable regulations. While the Commission claims to be pursuing 'simplification,' this should not be a pretext for weakening the regulatory frameworks that protect people and the planet. Over 150 organisations, including Earthsight, have once again said #NoToOmnibus. Re-opening agreed EU sustainability laws is not an option. For more details, please see the statement ➡️ https://bit.ly/3Epy3i2

🚨‘Blood-timber’ launderers are taking advantage of patchy enforcement by EU authorities. Despite sanctions and the restrictions of EU timber legality laws, data indicates that over 700 cubic metres are arriving at EU ports and borders every day: that’s 20 large truckloads or shipping containers. 🚛🚢 Every EU Member State received suspect birch plywood last year, though just seven countries – Poland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Estonia, Portugal and Greece – are responsible for 85 per cent of the current trade. The EU must extend its ban on Russian and Belarusian timber to cover products made with this wood in third countries. In the meantime, Poland, which imports more blood-stained birch than any other country, must use its current Presidency of the EU to lead a crackdown on the trade. Read Blood-stained birch 🔗 https://bit.ly/4aqVB1U

The EU banned wood products from Russia and Belarus after the illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before this, the EU was consuming around 1.7 million cubic metres of birch plywood every year – enough sheets to plaster Brussels four times over. And more than half of that was supplied by Russia and Belarus. Retail prices have shot up since sanctions were introduced, yet birch plywood remains popular and commonplace in Europe. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺? Over the last nine months, Earthsight has gone undercover to find out… Our investigation also connects the world’s largest climbing wall manufacturer, a leading EU toy maker and a firm supplying a major Polish furniture chain to firms in Turkey, China and Kazakhstan who admitted laundering Russian goods to Earthsight. Explore the investigation🔗 https://bit.ly/4aqVB1U