The report, titled Risky Business: EU timber imports linked to the destruction of Borneo's forests, is available here.
"There is a real risk that European money is helping to destroy some of the last orangutan strongholds left on Earth"Aron White, Southeast Asia Team Lead at Earthsight
Recently deforested land in the concession of oil palm company PT Bina Sarana Sawit Utama, November 2024 © Auriga / Earthsight
New footage shows forest in one of the last orangutan strongholds devastated by bulldozers
21 October 2025
Hardwood products on sale in Europe come from the biggest users of deforestation timber in Indonesia, where NGOs filmed large areas of forest cleared within one of the last orangutan strongholds, according to an investigation published today.
New images showing devastated districts of Borneo were released as part of the report, Risky Business, published by the British investigative NGO Earthsight and its Indonesian partner Auriga Nusantara.
The NGOs launched the investigation after obtaining nearly 10,000 unpublished government records that enabled them to identify 65 mills and factories in Indonesia that use timber from the clearance of natural forests, mostly in Borneo [1]. This is the first comprehensive snapshot of those processing timber from the clearance of Borneo’s last remaining natural forests, the groups believe. They combined the records with data on exports to the EU, revealing that the top five users of deforestation wood in 2024 all sell products to the bloc [2]. Much of Borneo has been transformed in recent decades from a largely forested landscape to a patchwork of plantations that have destroyed the lowland forests where orangutans live.
Recently cleared areas within the concession of PT Industrial Forest Plantation, November 2024
The EU is set to ban this kind of ‘deforestation timber’ under a new forest protection law. But the legislation has been delayed once and faces further delay and weakening [3]. Failure to implement the agreed law keeps European borders open to some of the very worst timber, Earthsight said.
Auriga Nusantara visited four recently flattened natural forest sites that had supplied the five manufacturers in 2024. They found thousands of hectares of newly cleared land in central Borneo that, just a few years ago, made up a large part of one of the last remaining orangutan forest strongholds left in the world [4]. Local community members described their loss of food, income and materials when forest near their homes was felled, leading to confrontations with loggers and the police. Residents told Earthsight they are “powerless” and “just a spectator” in the destruction.
Deforestation in the concession of PT Bina Sarana Sawit Utama, 2021–2025 © Auriga / Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel-2 via Google Earth Engine
Earthsight and Auriga confirmed that deforestation timber is entering the EU. A Dutch company that received a shipment of Indonesian plywood in February shared the location where the timber was harvested. There, the groups recorded hundreds of hectares of devastated landscape. Despite this, the firm said: “We will continue in doing business with companies that we know for a long time.” Another Dutch company admitted to the NGOs that it had traced its wood supply back to an Indonesian firm called PT Mayawana Persada, a company that has cleared more forest than any other in Indonesia in recent years.
A lack of public information meant it was impossible for Earthsight to determine where most products made from deforestation wood ended up. The five Indonesian companies sent 23,272m3 of plywood, garden decking and door frames, made of tree species only found in natural forests, to Europe in 2024, mostly to firms in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany [5]. All the shipments were legal. Much was likely from selective logging, which is less environmentally damaging. But all shipments from the five Indonesian firms were at high risk of containing deforested timber, Earthsight said.
Despite prominent sustainability claims, most of the EU companies asked by Earthsight could not say where their wood came from or how they avoid deforestation timber. The firms are either importers or wholesalers of hardwood products, collectively serving at least nine European countries, mostly Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Earthsight easily found Indonesian hardwood products produced by these companies in garden centres and builders merchants in Belgium and the Netherlands, but information on its precise origin was not available. Some of the companies contacted by Earthsight expressed concern and pledged to buy only wood certified as sustainable, while others were less constructive.
Aron White, Earthsight team lead for Southeast Asia, said: “There is a real risk that European money is helping to destroy some of the last orangutan strongholds left on Earth. We identified Indonesian companies buying thousands of cubic metres of timber from the most damaging deforestation in the country, while falsely claiming all their supplies are sustainable. Their customers include major players in the EU timber industry. These cases show why the EU Deforestation Regulation must be implemented without delay: to force companies to clean up their supply chains and stop hiding behind misleading green labels. European wood companies should cut ties with any supplier handling this shameful deforestation wood and switch to the many available alternatives that are genuinely deforestation-free.”
The risk of importing deforestation timber from the five Indonesian manufacturers is higher, the groups say, because they were not always open about their use of the unsustainable wood. Earthsight and Auriga filmed meetings with senior staff from two of the five firms who denied buying deforestation timber. Their own government submissions show they bought 3,594m3 and 2,757m3 of deforestation timber in 2024. They sent 73 per cent and 88 per cent of their exports to Europe respectively in the same period.
Footage from Earthsight and Auriga's undercover visit to PT Kayu Multiguna Indonesia, November 2024
Hilman Afif, Campaigner for Auriga Nusantara said: “The destruction of Borneo's forests is not only an Indonesian tragedy, but also global. Orangutans being driven out, Indigenous peoples and local communities losing their space, and an increasingly unpredictable climate reflect the fragility of our forest governance. Deforestation has even reached peatlands – giant carbon storage ecosystems that should be our last line of defense against the climate crisis. Every hectare of forest lost is a step closer to destroying a future that is safe for the next generation. Now is the time for Indonesia to strengthen its leadership by ensuring that every commodity, including timber, is truly deforestation-free.”
Deforestation in Borneo has been growing in recent years, with 129,000 hectares lost last year, roughly equivalent to the area of Rome or Los Angeles. Timber sales finance the conversion of rich jungle, home to numerous endangered species, into vast plantation monocultures. Logging and agriculture have devastated the world’s tropical forests in recent decades, leaving only a third (36 per cent) intact by 2019 and leading to enormous climate emissions. Last year, Indonesian deforestation, mostly in Borneo, created more climate emissions than the Netherlands.
ENDS
The report, titled Risky Business: EU timber imports linked to the destruction of Borneo’s forests, is available here.
Original footage of forest destruction and logging activities and satellite time-lapses of deforestation are available on request.
Notes
[1] The documents provide near complete visibility on the firms trading deforestation timber from Borneo. The sum of these figures tally almost exactly with government totals. Earthsight’s report names all 65 firms. For more, see the Summary section of the report. A sample of the documents are available on request.
[2] See Summary section of the report for a table identifying the five firms that bought a total of 31,425 m3 of deforestation timber in 2024, according to documents they submitted to the Indonesian government. Appendix II of the report profiles each company. Four of the five are the top users of Indonesian deforestation timber sold anywhere in the world in 2024. A sample of the shipment records are available on request.
[3] The EU Deforestation Regulation is set to ban imports of timber and other commodities that come from recently cleared or degraded forest or were illegally produced. The law is due to come into force on 30 December 2025, though Brussels is considering another year-long delay or even a reopening of the legislation following industry lobbying. See report Chapter 2.
[4] In November 2024, Auriga Nusantara recorded vast areas of felled natural forest and new timber plantations between the Kahayan and Kapuas rivers in Central Kalimantan. A government-backed report in 2016 estimated that this area, dominated by plantation concessions, held up to 2300 orangutans. This was one of just 19 strongholds of over 1000 orangutans left in the world. Much of this habitat is now destroyed. Orangutans are critically endangered, one step from extinction in the wild. The area also supported endangered gibbons. There is a high risk this deforestation timber was used in plywood shipped to firms based in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden (see the infographics, linked in the next note).
[5] Profiles of all firms named in the report, including infographics and details of supply chains and international trade, are available here. A spreadsheet of trade flows to the companies is available on request. Their clients are not always clear, but collectively, the European importers serve customers in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden. Company responses to Earthsight’s findings are available here.
Contacts
Earthsight team lead for Southeast Asia and Africa, Aron White (EN): AronWhite@earthsight.org.uk
Auriga Nusantara campaigner, Hilman Afif (ID, EN): hilman@auriga.or.id
Earthsight press email: press@earthsight.org.uk
