Myanmar: Teak fills the coffers of the military junta

Despite sanctions, thousands of tons of timber from Myanmar reached Europe in 2022. At 3,700 tons, the quantity is even higher than that of the previous year. The profits fill the coffers of a brutal military junta.

It has unique properties and is therefore often used in luxury yachts: teak. Its natural occurrences in Myanmar have now been almost completely destroyed. Almost a century of deforestation has left almost nothing of Myanmar’s teak forests. According to the United Nations, the country lost nearly 15 million hectares of forest between 1990 and 2015. That is more than the entire forest area of ​​Germany. The prices for the increasingly scarce goods are going through the roof. Anyone who wants a deck made of wild teak on their ship today pays 1,000 euros and more per square meter for it.

The forest in Myanmar belongs to the state. Without the state-owned timber agency MTE, there are neither logging nor export permits. According to official statistics, more than 30 million euros worth of wood and wood products entered the EU in 2022. But since a violent coup in 2021, the wood expelled by the MTE has filled the coffers of a military junta accused of serious human rights violations, torture, the imprisonment of opposition figures and, last but not least, genocide against the Rohingya. In June 2021, the EU therefore put the MTE on a sanctions list.

The timber industry is considered corrupt and criminal

Teak from Myanmar should not have reached Europe for years. The reason: the EU timber trade regulation. It requires timber importers to provide evidence of the exact origin of the timber and proof that it was legally felled. According to the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), which is responsible for the timber trade, this has been impossible for Myanmar since 2018 at the latest. The timber industry there is considered corrupt and criminal.

As recently as 2017, BLE President Hanns-Christoph Eiden was quoted in the trade journal “Holzimport” as saying: “I don’t think we can be accused of strict testing.” Only a political scandal ensured that the BLE opted for more consistent controls. In the summer of 2018 it became known: Teak from Myanmar is installed on the Gorch Fock, the sail training ship and pride of the German Navy. An examination of the responsible timber dealer, Neumann, by the BLE showed that the prescribed due diligence obligations had not been complied with.

Criticism of low penalties

The BLE warned the Neumann company. Warning money: zero euros. Critics have long complained that the BLE is imposing penalties that are too low. A few hundred, maybe a few thousand euros. With what can be earned from teak today, these sums make no difference.

After the Gorch Fock scandal in 2018, the BLE announced tougher action after consultation with its sister authorities in the EU. There are doubts as to whether this was the case: while the BLE carried out eleven inspections in connection with timber imports from Myanmar in 2017, there were still six in 2018. After that, the number dropped rapidly. Between 2019 and 2022, the BLE carried out two more checks. The BLE has not issued any warnings since 2019.

This happened even though timber from Myanmar continues to reach Germany. Confidential documents NDR, WDR, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and “Spiegel” show: Between 2018 and 2020, dozens of teak deliveries came from Myanmar to the EU. The names of three German dealers also appear in the associated delivery data.

Conviction for illegal teak imports

This includes the company Koch Furniere. It appears in connection with deliveries via a Greek trader. She did not respond to questions about this research.

In the case of Alfred Neumann GmbH, which had already delivered the wood for the Gorch Fock, the teak is said to have been delivered via Italy. Neumann rejected the allegation of illegal imports and declared that he had not imported any Myanmar teak since summer 2018, only teak from other countries.

At the WOB company based in Hamburg, the goods apparently went through a Croatian middleman. The WOB managing director has already been sentenced to suspended imprisonment for illegal teak imports in the past, but has appealed against the sentence. He also denies any involvement in illegal imports.

“General Suspicion”

Apparently these 67 imports, a total of 1300 tons worth seven million euros, did not get the BLE to check the dealers either. She explained that she only found out about these deliveries in 2020. Because the wood was imported via other EU countries, one was not sure whether one was responsible at all, said the BLE when asked.

Irrespective of this, the BLE had a “general suspicion” in spring 2020 that teak from Myanmar could get into the EU and asked the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF to investigate. “In November 2020, as a result of the research, OLAF presented that there were imports into the EU from the companies Neumann, Koch and WOB. In spring 2021, OLAF began examining the companies Neumann and Koch. The BKA was asked to investigate WOB “Said a BLE spokeswoman on request.

Public prosecutors still check today whether the deliveries were legal or not. The teak has long since been sold and installed. The public prosecutor’s office in Hamburg is investigating persons responsible for WOB for possible violations of the Timber Trade Security Act (HolzSiG).

Free trade within the EU

It is difficult to say whether more teak made it to Germany. The reason is a rule written into the EU timber trade regulation at the urging of the timber lobby. It only imposes strict obligations on those who are the first to import the wood into the EU. All subsequent dealers can trade the goods freely in the EU.

The BLE says that customs have been informing them about teak deliveries since 2018. The BLE learned that in February 2022, after the sanctions were imposed on Myanmar, another delivery to Germany was registered. In this case, too, the wood was not confiscated. Because the goods were not intended for the German market, but for a Polish timber dealer, the local authorities were informed. There is now an examination of the process.

Lack of cooperation from customs authorities

Experts and environmental protection organizations have long criticized the BLE for what they consider to be a lax approach to the problem. “People knowingly accept that the forests in Myanmar will be destroyed. One also accepts that the military will earn money from it. Human rights violations are associated with it. One accepts all of this and ignores one’s own laws,” complains Johannes Zahnen WWF.

For Bernd Lange (SPD), Chairman of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament, it is a “scandal that the rather minimal sanctions against Myanmar are not being consistently implemented”. He calls on the EU Commission to take clearer measures. The FDP MEP Svenja Hahn also complained that it was “terrifying that the sanctions can apparently be circumvented so easily”. Martin Schirdewan, co-chairman of the Left Party, calls for “more customs employees and a better equipped customs administration”.

When asked, a spokesman for the EU Commission stated that imports of timber from Myanmar after the sanctions had been imposed amounted to breaching the sanctions. However, “the competent EUTR authorities of the Member States (…) need the necessary time to establish cooperation with the customs authorities and the sanctioning authorities in order to effectively enforce the sanctions”.