REPORT: IKEA — Clever on the outside, rotten on the inside

Bucharest, 16 April 2024 — IKEA claims to be planet-friendly but is complicit in the degradation of Romania’s forests. A new report by Agent Green and Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) exposes the destruction caused by IKEA and presents the environmental organisations’ firm demands to the Swedish corporation. The report was presented for the first time today at a press conference held by the two organisations at the Group for Social Dialogue (GDS).

REPORT IN ROMANIAN

REPORT IN ENGLISH

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A new investigative report by Agent Green and BMF presents a consistent pattern of destructive logging in forests associated with IKEA, with a massive negative impact on nature and climate. The findings are based on analysis of official documents combined with field visits in half of IKEA’s 43 forests in Romania, which cover 51,000 hectares. The report highlights over 50 activities suspected of violating national and European law in 7 forests owned by IKEA through Ingka Investments and another 2 forests supplying timber used to manufacture IKEA products. Biodiversity-rich forests are being wiped off the face of the Earth. Aggressive logging in fragile ecosystems and even old-growth forests without adequate environmental assessment, and dozens of tractor tracks several metres deep criss-crossing the forests, are just some of the documented problems.

Most of the forests visited overlap wholly or partly with Natura 2000 protected areas. Some were either untouched or under low-intensity logging regimes before Ingka became the owner. Today, all are managed to maximise timber extraction, disregarding forest habitats and their vital role for species. Only 1.04% of all Ingka’s properties in Romania are under strict protection and 8.24% under partial protection. This is entirely insufficient to meet EU targets. The EU Biodiversity Strategy provides for partial protection of at least 30% of each Member State and strict protection of at least 10%. A key objective is strict protection of all remaining primary and old-growth forests in Europe. Against these European targets, IKEA has a shortfall of at least 8.96% in strict protection and at least 11.76% in partial protection.

At the press conference in Bucharest, Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green, said:

“IKEA treats Romania’s forests like a maize crop. It is already doing what is intended under the new Forest Code, which, if adopted and promulgated, will legalise its forest crimes. Letting trees grow old is not part of IKEA’s culture. Annihilating entire forests in a short time is a matter of urgency for IKEA, the tree hunter. The company respects neither written laws nor nature’s unwritten ways. IKEA does not practise what it preaches, whether it is the European Union’s nature directives, Romania’s national legislation or the FSC forest certification standard. As a company with billions of euros in turnover and Romania’s largest private forest owner, IKEA must become an example of good practice.”

Ines Gavriluț, Eastern Europe campaigner at Bruno Manser Fonds, added:

“It is time for IKEA to start implementing its own sustainability commitments. IKEA could do so much good if it truly wanted to set a good example as a forest owner and manager and major timber consumer in Romania and beyond. Its needs could also be met without resorting to destructive logging or turning natural forests into plantations — but this requires tackling difficult issues, such as the core of IKEA’s fast-furniture business model. Wooden products should not be intended for rapid consumption, because they are not a fashion item; they should be made to last hundreds of years.”

Agent Green and Bruno Manser Fonds call on IKEA and the Ingka Group to take control of their forestry operations in Romania, rigorously check logging companies, stop sourcing timber from national parks and primary and old-growth forests, increase strictly and partially protected areas, use selective logging in their own forests, ensure full traceability and transparency throughout IKEA’s supply chain, and allow independent forest monitoring by civil society and investigative journalists.

In August 2021, Agent Green published its first report (PDF in Romanian) documenting the destruction of forests in Romania linked to IKEA. In May 2023, Agent Green and Bruno Manser Fonds sent an open letter expressing their concerns to the Ingka Group and IKEA Switzerland. BMF also launched a petition calling on IKEA to stop abusive logging in protected areas and other high-conservation-value forests in Romania. The petition can still be signed HERE. At the time this report was published, IKEA had refused dialogue.

The recent ARTE documentary to which Agent Green also contributed, entitled “IKEA, the tree hunter”, likewise shows the real cost of IKEA furniture, the uncontrolled exploitation of timber and human labour. Over the next few months, the Agent Green / BMF report will be illustrated in a documentary series broadcast in dozens of countries around the world.

Press contacts:

Ines Gavriluț, +41 61 316 30 78, ines.gavrilut@bmf.ch

Gabriel Păun, office@agentgreen.org