In July 2019, a shipment of padoek, a tropical timber from Gabon was blocked by Belgian authorities at Antwerp’s port, Belgium, following a tip-off from Greenpeace Belgium. The shipment from a Gabon-based Chinese company, Wan Chuan Timber SARL (WCTS) caught the attention of Greenpeace’s campaigner during routine monitoring at the port of Antwerp.

The shipment was considered questionable as it comes from Gabon where there is a high level of corruption linked to the forestry sector and illegalities were also identified as far back as 2016 in relation to WCTS activities in Gabon. The latest news about the company was reported by the Environmental Investigation Agency as recent as in May 2019.

According to guidance documents on the EUTR by the European Commission, “In cases where the risk of corruption is not negligible, even official documents issued by authorities cannot be considered reliable.”

Greenpeace believes the importing company, Compagnie de Bois Anvers, failed to conduct due diligence as there were indications of high risk dealing with illegal timber when buying from WCTS.

At press time, there are no updates on the enforcement actions of the Belgian authorities.