The Italian Job: How Myanmar timber is trafficked through Italy to the rest of Europe despite EU laws

By Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

An undercover investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency has exposed how an entire industry of Italian companies has continued to profit from the sale of valuable timber from Myanmar, even while many other countries have cracked down on the trade and European authorities agree that importing Myanmar timber is a violation of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). This trade has been allowed to continue since the military coup in Myanmar of February 2021. When asked, no trader confirmed they would stop importing despite the recent introduction of EU sanctions on the Myanmar Timber Enterprise, the state-owned company that claimed to be the only legal source of timber in the country. The investigation raises serious questions about how Italian and European authorities have allowed the trade to continue, and what action they will take to stop it. Only minimal fines have been imposed on the companies, who have continued to trade despite findings they are breaching the law, and the trade has only continued to increase despite heightened scrutiny on the legal problems with Myanmar timber.

London; Washington, DC: EIA, 2021. 34p.