In June 2004 we called upon UK timber importers to boycott the Swiss- German Danzer Group, after obtaining evidence of their unscrupulous behaviour - including bribery, illegal logging and dealings with arms traffickers blacklisted by the UN Security Council. Last month (January 2005) Greenpeace International released an updated version of the report, detailing further evidence of forgery and bribery by the Swiss timber giant.
Danzer is one of the world's largest international traders in tropical roundwood, sliced wood and veneers and one of the largest suppliers of tropical timber to the UK market. The company sources timber predominantly from West and Central Africa.
We've sent a copy of the report 'Danzer crime file (2nd edition)' - which details the results of Greenpeace investigations - to all major UK companies involved in importing timber from the company, and end users who may be using African hardwood products.
Our report shows how Danzer is involved in:
- Bribery and corruption: internal documents reveal how Danzer's African operations regularly engage in bribery. The Swiss Attorney-General is currently investigating whether the company should be prosecuted under new international anti-corruption laws.
- Financing illegal logging: the company has financial and trade links with logging company Mba Mba Georges, which is involved in extensive illegal logging in Cameroon.
- Trading with known arms traffickers: Interholco, a Swiss based subsidiary of Danzer, is buying logs trafficked by known arms trafficker Gus Kouwenhouven - a key figure in the trade in illegal arms to Liberia during the reign of the warlord Charles Taylor.
- Fraud: Danzer's Liberian partner company, the Inland Logging Company (now dormant), has recently been accused of tax fraud by the Liberian authorities.
- Suspected forgery of official documents: Danzer Group employees are suspected to have forged certification of origin and other documents for timber exports from a number of African countries.
Greenpeace Senior Forest Campaigner, Pat Venditti said: "Purchasing timber products from Danzer is like buying the chainsaws that are tearing apart Africa's last remaining rainforests.
"Given the illegal and suspect activities exposed in this report, it is clear the EU must act to ban further imports of illegally logged timber, and companies must begin to avoid timber from companies like Danzer engaged in illegal or suspect activities."
The rainforests of West and Central Africa are the last refuge for threatened species such as the lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants.
Only one third of the original African forests remain and experts believe that three-quarters of it are under threat, mostly from the logging industry.
