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Environmentalists call for boycott of merbau wood products

European shops continue to trade in merbau wood flooring, despite evidence that the wood is likely to have been stolen from Indonesia’s last remaining rainforests, say campaigners at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
Some large retail chains in the UK and US have stopped selling merbau flooring since EIA’s release of evidence, four months ago, that linked European supply chains of timber to illegal logging activities in Indonesia’s Papua province, according to EIA. But many smaller chains, independent stores and internet outlets throughout Europe have yet to do so and environmental groups are now calling for consumers to boycott their merbau products.

Indonesia’s Papua province is home to one of the last significant tracts of virgin tropical forest in Asia, but each year an area the size of Belgium is destroyed. Eighty percent of logging in Indonesia is illegal, with merbau trees the main species targeted.