EUROPEAN COMPANIES CONNECTED TO ILLEGAL CONGO TIMBER

Ten European companies trading in timber have sourced USD2.26 million of wood from a company engaged in illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to a report released by Global Witness. The findings are especially worrying because most of the world’s second largest tropical rainforest is in the DRC, said the report. Tropical forests are estimated to absorb 30% of the world’s carbon emissions.