At import, illegal activities include:

• illegal import of protected species;
• import ban violations;
• undeclared imports;
• false, fraudulent, or incomplete documentation;
• false declarations;
• obfuscating the origin of the wood by labelling it with an imprecise geographical region such as “harvested in Europe/Asia”;
• creating fraudulent timber certifications visually designed to look similar to legitimate ones;
• labelling products with inaccurate and misleading phrases such as “ethically harvested” or “made from sustainable wood”;
• importing timber to third countries and then re-exporting to destinations to profit from free trade agreements or less stringent regulations;
• imports exceed set limits.

Many of these activities are described in more detail in UNODC (2012).

Unscrupulous companies and corrupt officials regularly engage to facilitate the import and onward sale of trafficked timber.

Companies go to great lengths to circumvent local, national, and international regulations to launder wood into legal supply chains by taking advantage of a lack of enforcement and loopholes in legislation.