A3
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019
Investigators fi nd Oregon link to illegal rainforest logging
Eugene businessman secretly recorded
By TONY SCHICK,
CONRAD WILSON
and DAVID STEVES
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Jim Green wanted his
prospective business part-
ners to know he wasn’t all
that concerned with where
they cut down the tropical
hardwood that would even-
tually become veneer siding
on homes across the United
States.
“I’m not worried that
you’re stealing from a
national park. I don’t care,”
he said during a 2017 meet-
ing. What mattered to Green
was that he had paperwork
— even if bribery or graft
was involved — indicating
that everything was above
board.
As it turns out, Green, a
Eugene businessman and
hardwood importer, wasn’t
talking with potential busi-
ness collaborators; he was
revealing his secrets to an
environmental
watchdog
group’s undercover inves-
tigators, who were surrep-
titiously recording him on
video.
Those video recordings,
along with other investiga-
tive materials, have been
shared with federal offi cials,
who are conducting an inves-
tigation of possible illegali-
ties involving west Central
African rainforest poaching,
black market trading, and the
roles played by Northwest
businesses.
On Monday, the watch-
dog group behind the under-
cover operation, Environ-
mental Investigation Agency,
released that video and the
rest of its fi ndings to the
public.
Among its allegations:
Timber
harvested
ille-
gally from African rain-
forests is being sold in the
U.S. through Pacifi c North-
west companies and others
are doing the same thing to
get hardwood to customers
throughout Europe.
The
Environmental
Investigation Agency , a non-
governmental organization
based in Washington, D.C.,
spent four years investigat-
ing logging in the Repub-
lic of Congo and Gabon.
The region is home to one
of the world’s largest rain-
forests, which provides hab-
itat for endangered species
such as forest elephants and
gorillas.U.S.
U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement con-
fi rmed to Oregon Public
Broadcasting this month that
it had launched an investiga-
tion into the illegal import
of tropical hardwood and
the involvement of North-
west companies in moving
it through a supply chain
to retailers and custom-
ers throughout the United
States.
Undercover investigators
and trade data analysts from
the Environmental Investi-
gation Agency say they have
found forestlands obtained
illegally, routine overhar-
vesting, bribery and other
illicit activity in the supply
chain of timber known as
okoume. That okoume, used
in plywood and veneer sid-
ing, has been sold domes-
tically by Evergreen Hard-
woods — an importer based
in Mercer Island, Washing-
ton — and Oregon’s Rose-
burg Forest Products.
“We’re talking about sys-
temic illegal logging of the
forest that has been devel-
oped in a way that is under-
mining governance in the
region, and has been occur-
ring over a greater than
10-year period,” said Lisa
Handy, director of forest
campaigns for the Environ-
mental Investigation Agency .
At the center of the report
is a collection of compa-
nies known as the Dejia
Group, which according to
the Environmental Investi-
gation Agency controls an
area of 3.7 million acres —
10 times the size of Washing-
Environmental Investigation Agency
A truckload of tropical hardwood from west Central Africa called okoume. It’s at the center of
an environmental watchdog group’s investigation into illegal logging and corruption.
ton’s Olympic National Park
— inside the Congo basin.
It harvests a variety of spe-
cies and exports primarily to
China. It also sends wood to
France, Spain and Belgium.
The
United
States
accounts for about 3 per-
cent of its business, but the
Environmental
Investiga-
tion Agency’s report states
approximately $22 million
worth of that illegal timber
found its way into the U.S.,
primarily through Evergreen
Hardwoods and a related
company called Cornerstone
Forest Products.
Jim Green, who lives in
Eugene, is the owner of Cor-
nerstone and a former part
owner of Evergreen, where
he still works as supply
manager.
Environmental Investi-
gation Agency investiga-
tors posed as timber suppli-
ers and captured undercover
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Astoria, OR
video during a meeting with
Green.
Green declined to com-
ment until he had seen EIA’s
undercover video of a meet-
ing with him . He declined
to answer questions sent
more than a week ago via
email.
“FYI, I have not been to
Africa in 15 years and have
never visited Republic of
Congo,” he said via email to
Oregon Public Broadcasting .
At one point on the tape,
which was made available in
advance for OPB to review,
Green and Environmental
Investigation Agency inves-
tigators discuss required
paperwork under the Lacey
Act, a U.S. law prevent-
ing trade in illegal plants
and wildlife, at which point
Green states on the tape that
he doesn’t care if the tim-
ber was stolen from national
parkland, where logging is
forbidden.
“I just need to have doc-
umentation in case some-
body accuses me and wants
to look,” he says.
Green also states on the
tape that he understands graft
and bribery are part of doing
business in the Congo basin.
Green also states on the tape
that, while he believes ille-
gal timber harvesting does
occur, it’s not the norm and
“everyone’s doing, I think,
reasonably a pretty good job
at doing everything correctly
and legally.”
Cornerstone and Ever-
green sold okoume to Ore-
gon’s Roseburg Forest
Products for use in a popu-
lar veneer siding, found in
stores such as Menard’s and,
until 2017, Home Depot.
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