A report by the British NGO Earthsight, published this Monday, denounces that thousands of cubic meters of wood derived from a forestry concession targeted by investigations in the Amazon reached the European market. The final destination of the material, according to the document, was infrastructure and landscaping works in the Netherlands. For the organization, the case “highlights weaknesses in certification systems and control mechanisms in global wood supply chains”.
The report “Be careful where you step! The Dutch deck built with suspicious wood from the Amazon” points out that the wood was supplied by Samise Indústria, Comércio e Exportação Ltda. The study points out that the company from Pará “accumulates fines, operational suspensions and a criminal conviction”.
The investigation, which was supported by the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA), used satellite images, court decisions, wood transport documents and export records related to Samise’s operations in the Saracá-Taquera National Forest, in Pará, to determine the origin of the wood.
According to the NGO, angelim-vermelho — a species widely used in decks, walkways and external structures — arrived on the Dutch market through importers that sell certified wood for infrastructure and landscaping works.
Among the companies that received wood derived from this supply chain, according to the study, are Hoogendoorn Hout and Van den Berg Houtgroep — two of the European importers of Brazilian tropical wood with the most market space.
— The investigated wood traveled through the entire supply chain and most likely reached the European market even after operational suspensions, fines and investigations. This highlights flaws in both the certification mechanisms and the inspection of global timber trade chains — says Rafael Pieroni, Earthsight leader for Latin America.
“Among the episodes highlighted by the investigation are the suspected tampering with the identification of more than 600 logs valued at around 550 thousand reais, the suspension of operations after signs of fraud, the transport of wood during a period of operational suspension and the sending of products to the Greenex sawmill, later sold on the domestic and international markets”, says the NGO Earthsight.
The data present in the NGO’s study shows that, “in addition to fines totaling approximately R$7 million for violations of Brazilian laws”, Samise “also owed more than R$2.2 million to the federal government in penalties related to non-payment of concession fees, which led to yet another suspension of its activities in March 2025”.
Certification
The study points out that the company had been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) since 2016 and was subject to successive suspensions between 2023 and 2025 — the cancellation of the certificate only occurred in March 2026.
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This Monday, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change published in the Official Gazette the decision of the director general of the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB) to terminate the contract with Samise. There was an understanding that the company was unable to fulfill the expected agreements. Samise can still try to reverse the decision within 10 days.
GLOBO tried to contact Samise by phone, but did not hear back until the report was published.
Certification limitation
The report also points out that the FSC certification remained valid “during much of the period in which the company accumulated sanctions and questions from Brazilian environmental agencies”.
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For Earthsight, the case highlights “limitations of both the forest certification system and the application of the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR), legislation in force since 2013 that prohibits the entry of illegally produced wood into the European Union and requires importers to adopt due diligence procedures to verify the legality of their supply chains”.
According to the organization, a significant portion of companies “continue to treat environmental certifications as the main verification instrument, without carrying out more in-depth independent analyzes of the origin of products”. One of the conclusions of the investigation is, therefore, that excessive dependence on certifications can allow relevant risks to go unnoticed throughout the supply chain.
The NGO defends the need for “strict implementation of the new European regulations aimed at combating deforestation, which is scheduled to come into force in December 2026”. Among other points, the standard will require more robust controls on the origin of forest products sold on the European market.
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— As the European Union prepares to implement new anti-deforestation regulations, this case reinforces the need for companies’ due diligence to go far beyond simply checking environmental certificates — concludes Pieroni.
