AGENT GREEN REPORT: Hypocrisy. IKEA’s cynical destruction of Romania’s old-growth forests

Protest at the opening of a new IKEA store (photographs from the protest will be available later today).

26 August 2021, Vienna, Bucharest – Agent Green today publishes its investigative report into the deliberate degradation of old-growth forests in Romania owned by IKEA. Entitled “Hypocrisy. IKEA’s cynical destruction of Romania’s old-growth forests”, the report highlights systemic forest-management problems in several Romanian forests owned by the Swedish company. Over the past 2 years, Agent Green investigators have documented in detail several breaches of forestry and environmental-protection laws. These breaches negatively affect local habitats. Some of these IKEA-owned forest areas are designated protected areas because of their importance for wildlife protection.

Download the report in Romanian here: 20210826_ipocrizia_IKEA RO

Download the report in English here: 20210826_IKEA_hipocrisy_EN

“In previous investigations, we showed how timber cut from virgin forests owned by the Romanian state in the Țarcu Mountains ends up in IKEA furniture worldwide after being felled by a local company, made into boards at the Kronospan factory in Sebeș and assembled into furniture at the Ecolor factory in Cluj. Today we show that IKEA takes no more care even in its own forests. It is just as hypocritical: the gap between promises and reality is downright cynical, and the company’s business opaque,” accuses Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

See the previous “Cash Investigation” inquiry, a France 2 / Agent Green collaboration: https://dai.ly/x59qar9

The report published today is also being presented to the Austrian press in Vienna, where IKEA is opening a new store at Westbahnhof, with 2000 shoppers expected at the opening. Agent Green, Extinction Rebellion and Lieferkettengesetz are protesting on this occasion and informing the public about IKEA’s lack of transparency and destructive policies. Protesters are displaying several banners, including a huge one saying “IKEA, STOP TRASHING ROMANIAN OLD-GROWTH FORESTS / IKEA, STOP THE MASSACRE IN ROMANIA’S OLD-GROWTH FORESTS”.

“The grotesque way IKEA pretends to be sustainable through its new Vienna store is the perfect example of how multinational corporations try to cover up crimes in their production chains by whitewashing their image. The illegal origin of the timber has been documented repeatedly, with clear examples from Siberia, Ukraine and Romania. The era of corporations’ own labels is drawing to a close. We need a new law showing the origin of all materials and making company heads and boards personally legally responsible if they market products that have abused nature and workers. In practice, if this law were already in force, IKEA’s head in Austria would pay billions and go to prison for selling furniture made of illegal Romanian timber. In the coming years, we will focus on turning this into law,” said Veronica BOHRN MENA, spokesperson for Lieferkettengesetz, Austria.

Based on the evidence collected, Agent Green can conclude that IKEA engages in forestry practices that place minimal requirements on the company’s employees and subcontractors working on its land, thereby harming the environment, communities and protected natural areas. Some of these acts of destruction occur within or near EU-designated Natura 2000 sites that should be protected under EU directives. This includes the Valea Neagră forest, which was clear-cut immediately next to the village of Târâtu, Vrancea County, and the Natura 2000 protected area. In this area, landslides cause havoc, and IKEA’s logging risks completely isolating the community, which is connected to the rest of the world by a single road. The logging took place without an approved forest-management plan and without an environmental-impact assessment.

Clear-cutting carried out in 2021 on IKEA property immediately next to Târâtu village, Vrancea County

More worrying still, IKEA currently disregards the EU Forest and Biodiversity Strategies for 2030. The strategy calls for strict protection of all remaining primary and old-growth forests. Instead, IKEA appears to be actively pursuing the exploitation of old-growth forests on its land before strict legal protection is implemented.

Agent Green analysed IKEA’s forest-management plan for the land within the Natura 2000 Penteleu site. The plan prioritises felling most forest plots with trees averaging between 120 and 180 years old, which must be harvested “urgently” because of a so-called “regeneration urgency” that is actually a policy of exploiting old-growth forests.

“In practice, in the midst of a climate emergency, IKEA prioritises clearing old-growth forests: those most resilient to weather-related challenges, rich in biodiversity, producing the most oxygen, protecting water and soil and storing the most carbon. What IKEA is doing is criminal,” Păun added.

This policy of urgently exploiting these forests appears to rest solely on the assumption that, after 120 years, some trees begin to lose commercial value. For certain tree species, however, this is the age when forests begin accumulating their greatest biodiversity value, specifically for animal species that depend on old-growth forests, such as birds, mammals and insects.

Other similar forest-management plans also appear to target old-growth forests throughout IKEA’s forest portfolio, including those within protected Natura 2000 sites.

Agent Green calls on IKEA to change its forest strategy urgently and allow old-growth forests to be strictly protected. Romanian authorities and the company’s shareholders should take immediate action to prevent further irreversible damage in certain areas identified in this report.

The organisation also calls on IKEA to implement the standards it claims to respect and change its forest strategy for protected Natura 2000 sites. As the administrator of some of Romania’s last old-growth forests, the company should prioritise species and habitat protection over its economic interests and logging. IKEA should also acknowledge that fellings labelled progressive are actually clear-cuts.

For Natura 2000 sites on IKEA-owned land, Agent Green would like clear-cutting and progressive fellings to cease indefinitely and primary and old-growth forests to be strictly protected. Outside these areas, where logging is permitted, the organisation recommends selective fellings in accordance with the Forever Forest (in Romanian) concept

IKEA owns approximately 50,000 hectares of forest in Romania, making it the largest private forest owner and therefore giving it a major social responsibility.

Press contacts:
Mircea BARBU, Head of Investigations, Agent Green, mircea.barbu@agentgreen.org, 0721777188
Veronica BOHRN MENA, spokesperson for Lieferkettengesetz, info@lieferkettengesetz.at, 00436603202086
Josef ETZELSDORFER, Extinction Rebellion, 00436803322628