Forests

Forest Campaign Goals

We aim to secure a future in which forests around the world are governed more equitably, transparently, and responsibly. To work towards this future, we:

• Institute reform and law enforcement in forest countries to establish forest governance based on the rights and self determination of indigenous peoples and local communities;
• Transform global trade and consumption patterns to eliminate deforestation and human rights violations from international supply chains; and
• Increase accountability and deter environmental crimes through transparency and traceability in commodity supply chains and transparent trade data.

Forest Campaign Impact

• EIA led the coalition that created the 2008 Lacey Act amendments prohibiting imports of illegal timber into the U.S. Through our investigations we have triggered historic actions including a $13 million dollar fine on America’s largest flooring retailer, Lumber Liquidators, for sourcing oak flooring from protected Russian tiger habitats, and banning Peru’s largest timber exporters from the U.S. based on evidence that 96% of their imports were illegally stolen from Amazon forests and Indigenous territories.
• EIA’s 2025 documentation of timber crime in Brazil triggered enforcement actions on both ends of the supply chain: Brazilian officials halted illegal timber exports; and complaints filed in the EU led the Dutch competent authority to take action against an importer of illegal timber.
• EIA partners with Indigenous peoples in Brazil and Peru to monitor their territories through satellite imagery and drones, leading to the identification and reporting of illegal invasions by loggers and gold miners to law enforcement.
• Following our groundbreaking undercover investigation into illegal logging in Romania, EIA worked with Romania’s government and civil society to help create the Forest Inspector – a public portal providing Romanian citizens with real-time data about all timber transports in the country – a model that EIA is replicating in countries like Gabon, Liberia, and Chile.

• EIA investigations across Africa and China documented Chinese traders’ rapacious scouring of Africa for precious rosewoods, leading to international CITES restrictions blocking all trade in these species, effectively stopping the world’s largest illegal rosewood trade.
• Our 2022 investigation into Brazilian leather revealed that hides from hundreds of thousands of cattle illegally raised in protected areas in the Amazon contaminated supply chains for seats for luxury automakers including Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler, showing the need to implement a strong European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).