Back to the source: EIA study of Romanian data shows traceability to the harvest site is possible using GPS

In these debates, some European forest industry bodies have argued that GPS accuracy in the forest is still not sufficiently developed for GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude) to be a mandatory criteria under the new Regulation. Over decades of investigating and tracking illegal timber in forests around the world, EIA has seen that this is not the case.

EIA Priorities for CITES Standing Committee 74

This week governments and NGOs from around the world will descend on Lyon, France, for the 74th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (SC74). As a result of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be the first in-person CITES meeting since the 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP18).

Open Letter to President Castillo from the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP)

Peru's indigenous peoples have sent a strong public letter to Peru's President, Pedro Castillo, protesting the appointment of the new president of the cabinet, Hector Valer, who has a public trajectory of attacking, insulting and criminalizing indigenous peoples.

• Forests
• Peru

Defending Forests and People in Court: The Zambia Case

In December 2019, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a groundbreaking report about one of the most egregious timber trafficking systems exposed on the African continent.

• Forests
• Rosewood
• Timber

Shop on Amazon Smile and Donate to EIA

Amazon Smile is a website owned and operated by Amazon.com that allows online shoppers to select a charitable organization to receive 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases when they shop. Now that EIA is enrolled in the program, you can show your support...

• About

Perú: Juzgado podría anular resolución que benefició a Tamshi SAC tras deforestar sin autorización

Un juez está evaluando anular una cuestionada resolución del Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario y Riego del Perú (MIDAGRI) que intentó regularizar la deforestación no autorizada de 2,196.44 hectáreas de bosque natural Amazónico realizada por la empresa Tamshi SAC entre los años 2013 y 2016.

• Forests
• Peru

Room for Improvement: Using DNA Analysis to Address Rhino Horn Trafficking

Law enforcement officials from around the world have seized illegal supplies of rhino horn at least once a week on average for the past 10 years. The type of seizure ranges widely. It could be a pair of fresh horns confiscated from poachers who just gunned down a rhino inside a national park. Or possibly dozens of horns were discovered cleverly hidden in an air cargo shipment. Sometime it’s just a few grams of powdered horn found in a traveler’s luggage. Maybe a mix of raw and carved horns was seized after a police raid on a trafficker’s home.

• Wildlife
• South Africa
• Rhinos

Mukulagate

While the coronavirus pandemic rages on, ravaging Zambia’s economy and crippling its citizens' lives, new findings by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) show that illegal exploitation and trade in mukula (Pterocarpus tinctorius) persists unabated, benefitting a small number of well-connected and wealthy individuals. A probing undercover investigation into illegal mukula logging and trade sheds light on the apparent theft of more than 10,000 trees and unveils information connecting the Zambia Agency For Persons With Disabilities (ZAPD), the Ministry of Community and Social Services, the Ministry of Tourism and Arts, and the office of the vice president. Nearly two years after EIA’s exposé on the institutional looting of Zambian forests, it appears that the more things have changed with the pandemic, when it comes to mukula, the more they’ve stayed the same.

• Forests
• Rosewood
• Timber
• China - Forests

EPA Must Stop a New Black Market in Super Greenhouse Gases

Op-ed by Cynthia Giles and Alexander von Bismarck - Against the backdrop of the booming and prosperous drug trade of the 1990s, a lesser known but also lethal black market was emerging from an unfamiliar source – gases that caused the hole in the ozone layer. At the same time ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were being phased out globally, CFCs were flooding into the United States illegally...

Still Waiting for Action: Tokyo's Ivory Trade Assessment

The reality of the scope and impact of COVID-19 hit home for much of the world when the Tokyo 2020 Games were postponed. A year later and looking far different than ever expected or hoped, the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games finally arrived. As the host of the 2020 Games, Tokyo has come under increased scrutiny for its legal market for elephant ivory. Even as the Games were underway, the influential capital city faced mounting international pressure to close its legal ivory market for good. For World Elephant Day 2021, in between the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, we take a look at where Tokyo stands in doing its part to protect the world's elephants from the threats of ivory trade and poaching. 

• Elephants
• Ivory
• Wildlife
• Japan - Wildlife

EIA calls on the FSC Board of Directors to stop the re-association of HS Timber

During its meeting this week, the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) Board of Directors will determine whether to end its disassociation with one of the largest timber processors in Europe, the Austrian HS Timber Group (formerly known as Holzindustrie Schweighofer). At stake is not only HS Timber's hoped-for shot at restoring its name after a series of scandals, but also the reputation and the future of the FSC itself.

• Romania

Respuestas de las empresas a Carne Contaminada

Respuestas de las empresas a Tainted Beef/Carne Contaminada

• Colombia

Día Internacional de la Madre Tierra 2021

En el Día de la Tierra más de 100 organizaciones de la sociedad civil y de pueblos indígenas exigimos medidas urgentes que garanticen la protección de las y los Defensores de Derechos Humanos

International Earth Day 2021

This Earth Day EIA joins 100+ civil society and indigenous organizations on a public statement demanding the government of Peru to take urgent measures to guarantee the protection of defenders of the environment and human rights.

Unkept Promises: Chemours Newest Targets Miss the Mark

Following EIA’s call to cease irresponsible operations and subsequent mounting press pressure, the American chemical giant, the Chemours company released a new statement on their climate goals yesterday.

• Climate
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA Statement on Anti-AAPI Hate

With horrific acts of anti-Asian violence and racially-motivated crime on the rise in the U.S., EIA wants to join those expressing their outrage and support for Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. We also specifically want to call out the reality of anti-Asian bias within the environmental movement. EIA believes that every organization and individual fighting for the environment must root out, confront, and combat all forms of prejudice and hate they encounter.

Respaldo de Sociedad Civil a Defensora Ambiental en Perú

60 instituciones y miembros de la sociedad civil y organizaciones indígenas en Perú emitieron hoy un comunicado respaldando a la Defensora Ambiental Lucila Pautrat ante los ataques que viene recibiendo de parte de una empresa investigada por la instalación no autorizada de monocultivos agroindustriales en Tamshiyacu, en la Amazonía peruana.

• Forests
• Peru

Escazu Agreement Offers Hope but is Only the Beginning

2020 was a terrible year across the globe, but particularly for Latin America’s environmental defenders. After record numbers of murders in 2019, the perils for environmental and human rights defenders did not decline in 2020. In fact, these threats remained high and even increased during the pandemic, as illegal loggers, miners, and other land grabbers had free reign to encroach upon remote communities. And this time, the intruders brought with them the deadly coronavirus.

• Forests
• Peru

Carta pública pide suspender la selección del nuevo director del SERFOR en Perú

59 organizaciones de Pueblos Indígenas y de la sociedad civil en el Perú hicieron pública una carta enviada al Ministro de Desarrollo Agrario y Riego, Federico Tenorio, y a la viceministra María Isabel Remy, expresando su profundo rechazo al modo en que se está llevando a cabo el proceso de selección del nuevo director ejecutivo del Servicio Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (SERFOR), sin antes haber resuelto las irregularidades y vacíos normativos identificados en la remoción del anterior director ejecutivo.

Major Climate Win: Lessons for the Montreal Protocol

Two new papers published in Nature suggest that the CFC-11 emissions are back on a downward trajectory potentially avoiding substantial delays in the recovery of the ozone layer. The papers show an accelerated decline in global atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11 from 2018 to 2019, and attribute 60% of the decline to China. This is a huge win for the ozone layer and our climate, which would not have been possible without a concerted global response to the findings from the ground and the atmosphere.

• Climate
• Standards
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA Calls Upon the Biden Administration to Take Bold Action

The Biden-Harris administration takes the helm at a time when the world faces multiple interrelated ecological and social justice crises. Bold, transformative approaches are urgently needed to change systems too long operating at the expense of environmental, social and human rights priorities. The Environmental Investigation Agency calls for the new administration to implement measures that prioritize biodiversity protection and rapid emissions mitigation while centering environmental justice and good governance.

Kruger National Park Rhino Population Crash Underscores Continued Poaching Threat Facing World’s Rhinos

Newly released rhino population data reveals how the protracted poaching crisis fueled by consumer demand for rhino horn in Asia has decimated Kruger’s rhino population over the past decade.

• Wildlife
• Rhinos

EIA Statement on Capitol Riot

n January 6th, as Congress gathered for the official certification of electoral votes in the U.S. presidential election, armed white supremacists and rioters broke into the House and Senate chambers, forcing elected officials, journalists, and others to flee...

The AIM Act: Your Questions on U.S. HFC Legislation – Answered

A new year’s gift for our climate came wrapped in the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress at the end of 2020. Among the bill’s several significant climate provisions is the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, or AIM Act, that enacts a phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

• Climate
• Country Transitions
• Standards
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

How the Cooling Industry Can Turn Down the Global Temperature

The HVAC&R industry needs to implement critical changes to build back better – and help turn the tide on global warming.

• Climate