With some of Indonesia’s last remaining orangutan strongholds being flattened at an alarming rate, our investigators have, for the first time, traced the timber companies buying the wood produced through this deforestation – and their biggest European clients.

Thousands of unpublished documents, obtained by Earthsight and our Indonesian partner Auriga Nusantara, allowed us to piece together a near-comprehensive snapshot of the companies using wood from bulldozed forests in Borneo, the epicentre of Indonesian deforestation. New footage captures the destroyed habitat of multiple endangered species, while members of local and Indigenous communities speak of harm to their livelihoods.

Combined with analysis of trade data, the documents reveal that the biggest Indonesian buyers of logs produced through this clearance of natural forest – rather than logging that leaves the rest of the forest standing – are all shipping wood products to Europe.

The main European customers of Indonesian firms handling deforestation wood are Dutch, Belgian and German companies, which ordered more than 23,000 cubic metres of wood products in 2024, including finished plywood, garden decking and door frames.

There is a high risk that any timber imported from these Indonesian companies comes from forest clearance. We found evidence that proves deforestation wood has entered European markets, while our undercover investigation exposes a pattern of dishonesty and false claims, meaning timber exporters’ promises of sustainable supplies cannot be trusted.

Our findings highlight the urgent need for the EU Deforestation Regulation, which when implemented should ban imports of deforestation wood. But the regulation is under persistent attack from some policymakers and industry groups.

EU importers of Indonesian wood products should cease buying from any company that handles logs from forest clearance, and switch to some of the many Indonesian firms that are not using this shameful timber.