Greenpeace accuses Ikea of sourcing wood from protected Swedish forests

Greenpeace has released an investigation alleging that wood used in popular Ikea products, specifically the IVAR and HEJNE shelving units, is sourced from high-value natural forests in northern Sweden.

Using log tracers, activists tracked timber from eight harvested areas to sawmills that supply Ikea's manufacturers. The report identifies connections to sawmills operated by SCA and Munksund, which provide raw materials to suppliers like Hedlund and TräTeam. The harvested areas are classified by the Swedish Forest Agency as continuous cover forests, which are ecologically vital ecosystems that have remained forested without clear-cutting.

In response to these findings, Greenpeace activists held protests at Ikea's global headquarters in Älmhult during the company's annual leadership meeting. The organization is calling on Ikea to implement strict guidelines for suppliers to ensure that timber from irreplaceable, biologically diverse forests is excluded from its supply chain.