Forests Serial Offender Vietnam’s continued imports of illegal Cambodian timber Forests ©EIAimage ©EIAimage We would like to thank ABOUT EIA EIA UK Above: An arev transports logs CONTENTS 62-63 Upper Street, illegally felled from outside the Ximporae.This report Ut was aut written fugitis restiand editedut atia We investigate and campaign against Lower Sesan 2 Dam boundaries London N1 0NY UK to be ‘laundered’ Introduction 4 nobitby the ium Environmental alici bla cone Investigation consequam environmental crime and abuse. T: +44 (0) 20 7354 7960 cusAgency aci oditaquates UK Ltd. This dolorem document volla has Front cover: a sawmill near the Our undercover investigations E: [email protected] No legal source 6 vendam,been produced consequo with molor the financial sin net Vietnamese border in Snoul expose transnational wildlife crime, eia-international.org Province, Cambodia. 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Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary 14 EIA expresses its gratitude to the by addressing the threats posed dolorem volla vendam, consuo molor E: [email protected] individuals who contributed to the by plastic pollution, bycatch sin net fugitatur, qui int que nihic eia-global.org Counting crime 16 production of this report and who, and commercial exploitation of tem asped que n nes ape verrovid for safety reasons, must remain whales, dolphins and porpoises. maximolorera doles magni tet ea Environmental Investigation Agency Consequences for the VPA 20 anonymous. Finally, we reduce the impact of voluptas enis as de evel ipsam (UK) Ltd. Company Number: 7752350 climate change by campaigning dolendit, voluptam endusci psunto VAT Number: 440569842. Registered Recommendations 21 to eliminate powerful refrigerant quibusandit, sitaque enture inEnvironmental England and Investigation Wales Agency greenhouse gases, exposing related (UK) Ltd. Company Number: 7752350 VAT Annex 1 22 illicit trade and improving energy Number: 440569842. Registered in England efficiency in the cooling sector. and Wales Annex 2 25 2 Environmental Investigation Agency Serial offender 3 through official border crossings at Hoa Lu in Bình Phước province and Le Introduction Thanh in Gia Lai province, and where it was smuggled out of Cambodia and into Vietnam across informal crossings near The Environmental Investigation Agency both Hoa Lu and Le Thanh. (EIA) has published numerous reports The formal quota system described in detailing Vietnam’s trade in timber illegally Repeat Offender appears to have ceased, harvested in, and illegally exported from, its resulting in a reduced imperative for 1234 Vietnamese traders to ‘legalise’ their neighbours . Laos long bore the brunt of this timber into Vietnam. Without the need trade but, as EIA detailed in its 2017 report to pay import taxes in Vietnam, EIA identified Vietnamese timber traders now Repeat Offender, the focus of this illicit trade offering timber ‘without papers’7. switched to Cambodia during the 2016-17 Within Cambodia, promises have been harvest season following stricter enforcement ©EIAimage made for decades to tackle illegal logging and the rampant deforestation affecting of logging and export bans in Laos. local communities and contributing to investigate whether the illegal trade in Above: illegally felled logs Cambodia’s poor governance record. are transported to the Sesan Cambodian timber – and Vietnam’s role in sawmill complex Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has In Repeat Offender, EIA detailed how Forces license plates. it as a repeat offender – had ceased. Vietnam’s Gai Lai Provincial Government, repeatedly pledged he will end illegal mandated by Vietnam’s Ministry of logging. Nonetheless, illegal logging Hundreds of ‘arevs’ – basic trucks capable This report details how investigators Industry and Trade – a division of the 3 operations in Cambodia are coordinated of carrying up to 20m of logs along jungle found that while the nature of the illicit Central Government in Hanoi – had in Cambodia by powerful tycoons with tracks – ferried illegally harvested logs to trade had changed, there are still huge in 2016 issued quotas for the import close connections to senior members of timber depots inside Vietnamese Border volumes of illegally logged and traded of 300,000m3 of logs from Cambodia the Government and by members of the Army compounds located just inside Cambodian timber flowing across the in blatant disregard of Cambodia’s log armed forces and Government. Vietnam. These arevs avoided official border to Vietnam, despite Vietnam’s export ban. These quotas facilitated and border gates and Cambodian customs preparations for the VPA. Vietnamese incentivised large-scale illegal logging in Some enforcement appears to have officials, crossing instead into areas importers declared imports of 178,000m3 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in occurred in Vietnam at the time of writing, controlled by the Vietnamese Border of logs and sawn timber worth nearly $76 Cambodia’s Ratanakiri Province at a time with the arrest of Phan Huu Phuong8, Army. million between October 2017 and March when the Cambodian Government was allegedly a central figure in a Vietnamese 2018, a vast majority (if not all) of which publicly demanding an end to all timber illegal logging network. Phoung is accused At these depots, logs were measured, is illegal6. As detailed below, the actual trade with Vietnam. of logging within a national park in taxed, and ‘legalised’ into the Vietnamese volume of this trade may be significantly Vietnam’s Daklak province, with some economy by members of the Vietnamese higher as there are reasons to believe reports stating that timber was also EIA also exposed how the quotas customs and forest departments before not all imports are being registered with being smuggled from Cambodia9. Media themselves may have been incentivised being loaded onto large trucks and sent to Vietnam Customs or being aggregated in 3 has reported possible “high probability with corrupt payments of $45 per m factories and wood processing hubs in Gai its statistics. to Vietnamese officials, including, as Lai, Ho Chi Minh, Quy Nhon and beyond. of collusion between law enforcement alleged by traders, the Chairman of Gia Lai agencies and the ring leader”10. EIA identified three main areas within Province’s People’s Committee, customs Just three days after the publication of Cambodia where substantial illegal and border army (military) personnel – While this arrest is not related to the large- Repeat Offender, Vietnam initialled a logging operations were under way, potentially amounting to $13.5 million in scale operations described in this report Forest Law Enforcement, Governance namely Virachey National Park in corrupt payments on the 300,000m3 of and appears to be an isolated instance of and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Rattanakiri province, the forests quotas. enforcement by Vietnamese officials, it Agreement (VPA) with the European surrounding the controversial Lower does show that enforcement is possible Union, a trade agreement that includes Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province in Vietnam. While such enforcement Quotas in hand, Vietnamese companies the provision for Vietnam to pass and and Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary in should be welcomed, it appears that it is and their Cambodian counterparts implement legislation to address its Mondulkiri province. organised hundreds of loggers to enter significant imports of illegally harvested a breach of Vietnam’s logging ban that protected areas in Cambodia and the Below: logs from Phonm has motivated these actions and Vietnam or traded timber in return for timber Investigators tracked timber from these forests swiftly filled with the noise of exports to the EU being deemed to comply Prich Wildlife Sanctuary continues its role as a serial offender in are transported to Vietnam sites to where it entered Vietnam, both chainsaws. Having likely bought off with the requirements of the European the illegal timber trade, with much larger Cambodian provincial government Union Timber Regulation (EUTR)5. volumes of illegal timber continuing officials and members of the Cambodian to flow across the Cambodian border Armed Forces, loggers enjoyed their With the formal signing and ratification unhindered. protection as roads were closed to of this agreement expected in the outsiders and timber convoys escorted by second half of 2018, EIA returned to the 6 Both illegally harvested and exported – see ‘No Legal Source’, below vehicles bearing Cambodian Armed region during the 2017-18 dry season to 7. Timber without papers was advertised on the facebook group ‘Vietnam Wood Market’. Accessed January 2018 8. https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20180428/vietnam-arrests- mastermind-behind-largescale-illegal-logging-ring/45345.html