A shipment of illegal timber from the Amazon rainforest is on its way to Europe. We've discovered that the timber is bound for the port of Rotterdam - and it arrives tomorrow.
Quick recap - a team of Greenpeace investigators spent months undercover in the Amazon rainforest. They used GPS trackers to monitor logging trucks - and they uncover a network of sawmills that were trading illegally logged timber.
Now illegal timber from one of those sawmills - Rainbow Trading - is on its way to Europe. It's the third shipment from Rainbow Trading in the past month.
Now our team have learned that the timber will be offloaded in the Dutch port of Rotterdam. From there, it will be loaded onto trucks and taken to Belgium, to be delivered to timber companies and used for fancy garden decking.
Not if we can help it.
It's against the law to sell illegal timber in Europe - or to sell timber if there’s any risk at all that it’s illegal. But the authorities have been letting companies off the hook - even when they’ve been caught buying from sawmills trading illegally logged timber.
So we're kicking up a stink that they can't ignore. Over 67,000 people across Europe have signed a petition demanding that the authorities seize this illegal timber.
Raise the alarm and tell European authorities to seize this shipment.
The company that's brought this timber into Europe, Leary Forest Products, knows the risks.
We warned Leary back in May that illegal logging was commonplace in the Amazon and that it’s supplier, Rainbow Trading, looked to be laundering illegal timber. It got a fresh reminder a few weeks ago, when we placed Rainbow Trading in the centre of an illegal timber racket.
But despite these warnings, Leary continued to buy from this criminal sawmill anyway - and to bring their timber into Europe.
Greenpeace is not going to stand by while companies like Leary profit from the destruction of the Amazon. We're raising the alarm and making sure this timber is seized, not sold.
Tell the European authorities to seize this shipment.
