Saint-Gobain's UK subsidiary Jewson removes ipe products from shelves pending audit results after Greenpeace releases report alleging producers, traders in Brazil are allowing some illegally sourced ipe to enter supply chain

Wendy Lisney

LOS ANGELES , June 17, 2014 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) – U.K. building materials supplier Jewson Ltd., a subsidiary of French conglomerate Saint-Gobain, is removing some wood from its shelves until the origin of the timber can be fully investigated, according to a report by Mongobay.

Jewson has indicated that it will await the results of an audit before returning Ipê products to its shelves, after the company was implicated in a report by Greenpeace on illegal logging in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

The report claimed that some Ipê producers and traders were bending the rules on timber sourcing, and alleged that they were using loopholes and deception to bypass the regulations. According to Greenpeace, the checks put in place by the regulations were being used to "launder" illegally-sourced timber, that was then being sold into markets in Brazil and overseas.

The primary source of this article is Mongobay, Menlo Park, California, on June 16, 2014. The original article can be viewed here.

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