Press Releases
- EIA Response to EPA Proposal on Banning Additional HFCs Ahead of Montreal Protocol Meetings
EIA Response to EPA Proposal on Banning Additional HFCs Ahead of Montreal Protocol Meetings
Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposed rulemaking to prohibit a number of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in many applications for stationary refrigeration, foam blowing, and fire suppression....
- Musicians Express Support for Community Forest Management to President of Guatemala
Musicians Express Support for Community Forest Management to President of Guatemala
In a letter sent to Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, Jesse Carmichael and James Valentine of Maroon 5 and Adam Gardner of Guster ask the President to support one of the world’s leading models of forest management...
- NGO Coalition Presses SoftBank to Stop Yahoo! Japan’s Elephant Ivory Sales
NGO Coalition Presses SoftBank to Stop Yahoo! Japan’s Elephant Ivory Sales
Today, 32 environmental and conservation organizations appealed to Yahoo! Japan, the world largest internet ivory seller, and its major shareholder SoftBank, to halt all elephant ivory sales on Yahoo! Japan’s shopping and auctions sites. An open letter addressed to SoftBank and Yahoo! Japan...
- Ivory Traders Linked to Yahoo! Japan Exposed in Illegal Ivory Activity
Ivory Traders Linked to Yahoo! Japan Exposed in Illegal Ivory Activity
Six Japanese ivory trading companies that sell ivory via the popular shopping site Yahoo! Japan auctions offered to engage in illegal activities to buy, sell, acquire, or fraudulently register an unregistered ivory tusk. The companies’ culpable behavior...
- EIA and 250+ Organizations Call on U.S. Secretary of State for Profound Change in Honduras
EIA and 250+ Organizations Call on U.S. Secretary of State for Profound Change in Honduras
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and a coalition of environmental, human rights, faith-based and Indigenous organizations issued a letter this week to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling for immediate action in the aftermath of Berta Cáceres’ assassination...
- EIA Mourns the Death of Berta Cáceres and Calls for Action by Honduran Government
EIA Mourns the Death of Berta Cáceres and Calls for Action by Honduran Government
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) mourns the death of Berta Cáceres, a courageous and strategic Lenca leader and environmental defender who co-founded the Civic Council of Popular Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH)...
- Icelandic Whaling Remains Target At Boston Seafood Expo
Icelandic Whaling Remains Target At Boston Seafood Expo
Members of the “Don’t Buy from Icelandic Whalers” coalition have affirmed that their campaign will continue until Iceland permanently ends commercial whaling and international trading of whale products, despite breaking news that Icelandic whaling...
- EIA Welcomes U.S. Announcement to Verify Timber Legality under US-Peru FTA
EIA Welcomes U.S. Announcement to Verify Timber Legality under US-Peru FTA
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) strongly supports recent actions by Peruvian officials to conduct enforcement initiatives against illegal timber operators. In addition, EIA is pleased that Peru’s international trading partners...
- FSC Announces Holzindustrie Schweighofer is Under Active Investigation for Trading Illegal Timber
FSC Announces Holzindustrie Schweighofer is Under Active Investigation for Trading Illegal Timber
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) posted a statement on their website today announcing it is carrying out an investigation into “serious allegations against [Schweighofer] of trading and processing illegal timber in Romania.” The announcement...
- Holzindustrie Schweighofer Attacks Civil Society while Illegal Logging Continues in Romania
Holzindustrie Schweighofer Attacks Civil Society while Illegal Logging Continues in Romania
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) revealed the role of Austrian wood processor Holzindustrie Schweighofer as the largest driver of illegal logging in Romania in its October 2015 report, Stealing the Last Forest. Yesterday, Holzindustrie Schweighofer...
- Lumber Liquidators sentenced for smuggling illegal wood into the United States
Lumber Liquidators sentenced for smuggling illegal wood into the United States
Today, Virginia-based company Lumber Liquidators was sentenced to $13.2 million in fines and forfeitures for importing illegal wood and submitting false declarations under the Lacey Act, a conservation law that makes it a crime to import...
- EIA Denounces Termination of Peruvian Forest Oversight Body President
EIA Denounces Termination of Peruvian Forest Oversight Body President
In response to news today that the Peruvian government is acting to silence its own civil servants exposing the embedded illegal timber mafias in the country, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) denounces in the strongest...
- Japanese Wildlife Official Promoted Illegal Ivory Trade
Japanese Wildlife Official Promoted Illegal Ivory Trade
An official at the Japanese government-appointed agency that controls the country’s domestic ivory market is encouraging illegal trade in elephant tusks. The official advised an undercover investigator how to fraudulently register a tusk as legal...
- Fraudulent Tusk Registration Fuels Ivory Trade in Japan
Fraudulent Tusk Registration Fuels Ivory Trade in Japan
Japan’s ivory tusk registration system is awash with fraud, fueling illegal ivory trade and undermining international action to protect Africa’s disappearing elephants under pressure from intense ivory poaching. In a new report launched today...
- Japan’s Illegal Ivory Trade and Fraudulent Registration of Ivory Tusks
Japan’s Illegal Ivory Trade and Fraudulent Registration of Ivory Tusks
Though frequently highlighted as a model of domestic ivory control, Japan’s system is plagued by loopholes and undercut by weak legislation to such an extent that no meaningful...
- HFC Greenhouse Gases to be Controlled by the Montreal Protocol
HFC Greenhouse Gases to be Controlled by the Montreal Protocol
In the early hours of November 6, the 27th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol ended negotiations with a clear agreement to address the consumption and production of HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), but stopped short...
- EIA Releases Statement on TPP
EIA Releases Statement on TPP
The current model of free trade agreements, including the text released today of the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), creates enormous perils for the environment. The race to secure greater access to natural resources...
- Montreal Protocol Begins Formal Negotiations on HFCs
Montreal Protocol Begins Formal Negotiations on HFCs
Today the world’s governments agreed to start formal negotiations to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), potent greenhouse gases used primarily in refrigeration and air-conditioning...
- Lumber Liquidators Admits Guilt in Smuggling Illegal Timber, Agrees to Clean Up Supply Chain
Lumber Liquidators Admits Guilt in Smuggling Illegal Timber, Agrees to Clean Up Supply Chain
Today, legal representatives of Lumber Liquidators Inc. (LL) appeared in the Eastern District Court of Virginia to plead guilty to four misdemeanor counts for violations of the Lacey Act and one felony count of entry of goods by means of false statement...
- EIA Report Shows Holzindustrie Schweighofer’s Illegal Activities, WWF Submits EUTR Complaint
EIA Report Shows Holzindustrie Schweighofer’s Illegal Activities, WWF Submits EUTR Complaint
In a report released today, the U.S. Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) provided new evidence to the business practices by the Austrian company "Holzindustrie Schweighofer” (Schweighofer) in Romania. The report documents how Schweighofer processes...
- White House, Federal Agencies, and Private-Sector Aim to Tackle Emissions of Super Greenhouse Gases
White House, Federal Agencies, and Private-Sector Aim to Tackle Emissions of Super Greenhouse Gases
Yesterday President Obama announced several new executive actions and private-sector commitments that aim to mitigate and reduce emissions of potent super greenhouse gases, known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released...
- Lumber Liquidators Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Illegal Timber
Lumber Liquidators Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Illegal Timber
Announced today, Lumber Liquidators, the largest hardwood flooring retailer in the United States, pleads guilty to violations of the Lacey Act among other charges, will pay more than $13 million in fines and penalties to the U.S. government...
- EIA Calls on Obama to Protect American Arctic Following Shell’s Withdrawal from Alaska
EIA Calls on Obama to Protect American Arctic Following Shell’s Withdrawal from Alaska
Royal Dutch Shell announced today that they are abandoning further exploration for oil in the Arctic Ocean in Alaska after their first well in Burger Prospect within the Chukchi Sea...
- Cash from Chaos: The Burgeoning Illicit Trade in Timber from Myanmar to China Revealed
Cash from Chaos: The Burgeoning Illicit Trade in Timber from Myanmar to China Revealed
The conviction and subsequent pardon of 155 Chinese nationals in July for illegal logging in Myanmar threw a spotlight on how massive volumes of timber stolen from the county’s precious frontier forests have been flowing unhindered into China for decades...
- From Bad to Worse: Armand Marozafy’s Request for Parole Rejected
From Bad to Worse: Armand Marozafy’s Request for Parole Rejected
Armand Marozafy, an environmental activist and the Chairman of the Steering and Supporting Committee of the Protected Areas in the Masoala region, was thrown into jail on April 27, 2015, and on August 26, was rejected parole by the court of Toamasina...