For him, it was one of those amazing coincidences or, in his words, proof of 'how God does the right thing' 1 by bringing to his door someone he was desperate to meet. What he probably didn't expect was that at one of these events, after a long day of work, he would meet Luiz Roberto Granatyr, the owner of a local sawmill. Like everywhere else in this South American country during this period, meetings between candidates and their supporters were part of the daily routine for many of its inhabitants.Īs a politically active citizen, in his downtime from his day job as the regional head of the Paraná Environmental Institute, an agency tasked with licensing forest enterprises and handing out logging permits, André Aleixo was busy attending rallies promoted by his favoured candidate. It was September 2016 and municipal elections were scheduled to take place the following month.

These were hectic days for the residents of União da Vitória, a small town nestled in the Atlantic Forest, in Paraná in Brazil's south. The findings show a US law meant to prevent imports of stolen wood is failing and highlight the urgent need for further action to halt imports of 'forest risk commodities' from countries like Brazil.One US firm was able to buy suspect wood despite having its purchases closely monitored by US authorities. The Brazilian firm's flooring has been sold by retailers all over the US, including major home store chains.We detail how Indusparquet is charged with using fixers to illegally grease the wheels of its timber supply chains, how it has sourced wood from indigenous lands and from suppliers fined millions for illegal practices to make its products.

From the unique Atlantic Forest to the Amazon, Earthsight and Mongabay's year-long investigation reveals how exotic wood flooring linked to illegal logging, from a firm embroiled in multiple corruption cases in Brazilian courts, has been pouring into the US over the last five years.

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