Analysis - Global Witness has uncovered evidence that shows China-linked timber company Congo King Baisheng Forestry Development (CKBFD) is responsible for illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), exporting more than $5 million dollars' worth of illicit timber from the country to China between June and December 2022.
Global Witness has uncovered evidence that shows China-linked timber company Congo King Baisheng Forestry Development is responsible for illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo , exporting more than $5 million dollars' worth of illicit timber from the country to China between June and December 2022. The total of all the timber shipped during the period - over 30 million kilograms - weighs well over half the weight of the Titanic when she set sail.
Chinese banks, along with their international peers, are also profiting from the expansion of agricultural commodity production linked to deforestation around the world.
On May 22nd 2019, the court on found the company not guilty on all counts, claiming a lack of evidence and the fact that it had paid a"transactional fine." It was noted however that the fine was CKBFD's sister company, Sunflower, was not suspended. In 2021, troops deployed on the request of Sunflower arrived in a village close to the concession to retrieve a chainsaw, shooting two people at close range and detaining two others. The wounded individuals required surgery, with one needing to have a leg amputated. Two more individuals from the village were held in custody for three months before being released due to a lack of evidence.
In addition to likely logging illegally in concessions that were suspended, the company was not operating legally within concessions 008/20 and 004/20, which were awarded renewed cutting permits by the environment ministry. APEM, a Kinshasa based advocacy organisation, Global Witness tracked the movements of the ships used by Wan Peng International and found that timber shipments from DRC to China are ongoing in 2023. Wan Peng's current listed fleet of three ships - the aptly named Prosperity 101, 102 and 103 - have also called at the same location - Banana Inner Anchorage - in the last few years. Wan Peng's latest ship from DRC arrived in Zhangjiagang in March 2023, almost a year since the suspension of CKBFD's concessions in DRC.
The Chinese authority informed us that because the logging had taken place in DRC and violated local laws, the DRC authority was responsible for enforcement. The Chinese authority can investigate, according to China's Criminal Law, evidence of Chinese companies and Chinese citizens being involved in illegal logging or illegal trade overseas, at the request of the DRC counterparts.
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