Forest Crime File: Danzer Group

Greenpeace has now obtained additional evidence of further unscrupulous behavior including suspected forgery and carrying out business dealings with an arms trafficker who is blacklisted by the UN Security Council.

Recent evidence reveals that Interholco, a subsidiary of Danzer Group, bought logs from the Liberian Oriental Timber Company (OTC), run by Dutchman Gus Kouwenhoven. The UN Security Council regards Kouwenhoven as a key figure in the logistics of illegal arms movements to Liberia during the reign of warlord Charles Taylor. The report also shows how Interholco has maintained trading ties with Kouwenhoven, who has been operating another timber business out of Congo Brazzaville. Another Liberian partner of the Danzer Group, the Inland Logging Company, has recently been accused of tax fraud by the Liberian authorities.

The report also illustrates how Danzer Group employees appear to have forged copies of Phyto-sanitary certificates for timber exports from a number of African countries, including Liberia, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. With the help of a pair of scissors,
white tape and a color photocopier (enabling official stamps and signatures to be cut and pasted), certificates are hard to distinguish from the official ones, normally issued by the federal authorities or Chamber of Commerce of the respective export countries. Copies of the documents have been supplied to the Attorney General for further investigation.

The Danzer Group is one of the world's biggest producers of hardwood veneers and one of the biggest international traders in tropical roundwood, sliced wood and veneers. Today the Danzer Group operates thirteen veneer mills and five sawmills around the world and a number of large timber concessions. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo, the Danzer Group's concessions cover more than 4 million hectares of rainforest, an area larger than Switzerland.

More Information

• Read the report (pdf file).
• Download a copy of our briefing "Danzer Group Involved in Bribery & Illegal Logging"