2023-06-08 16:55:22
It is an unprecedented environmental dispute that the Criminal Court of Châteauroux examined on Wednesday June 7. For the first time in France, a company was judged for “placing timber or derived products on the European market without having adopted a system of due diligence within the meaning of European regulations” : an offense punishable, for a legal person, by a maximum fine of 500,000 euros.
A complaint was filed in 2019 by Greenpeace France, joined by the associations France Nature Environnement and Canopée against Etablissements Robert, a logging company in Indre. This company is suspected of having, in 2017, bought wood in the Brazilian state of Para from companies whose supply chains contained illegal wood “laundered” by fraudulent official documents. And of not having sufficiently evaluated, nor reduced, the risks of illegal importation as provided for the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) 2013.
This complaint is based on investigations carried out in logging areas by Greenpeace Brazil, in partnership with the Brazilian Environmental Authority under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment (Ibama) and researchers from the University of Sao Paulo, which revealed a system of administrative document fraud involving imports from Etablissements Robert.
“Inadequate” checks
By purchasing – in the form of planks – 22.44 cubic meters of ipe wood, a tropical species prized for its resistance to abrasion, the company allegedly failed to carry out preliminary research into the legality of the activity of certain suppliers in its supply chain, as well as field checks.
Cited by the court, two agents from the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), who took part in the investigation, confirmed the“insufficiency” verifications carried out by Robert. According to them, open sources, including the Ibama website, would have enabled him to see that all the suppliers in his supply chain had already been subject to sanctions in connection with the timber trade.
Called to the bar, Laura Monnier, legal director of Greenpeace France, underlined the character “lacunary” checks carried out by the regional directorate for food, agriculture and forestry (Draaf) at the company. For her, timber legality documents from one country to « indice de corruption » strong should have increased vigilance.
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