© EIA
population.2 Almost ten percent of China’s exports to the U.S. now go directly to Wal-Mart stores.3 The dramatic trade stream growth in furniture and other wood products in the past decade – since 1997, U.S. imports have increased over 1000% from China alone4 – is fueled in part by the demand for inexpensive mass-produced products sold in the aisles of big box retailers like Wal-Mart, which have seen explosive growth during this same period.
One of four aisles of wooden furniture in a typical Wal-Mart.
From furniture to picture frames, candle holders to hammer handles, although WalMart is not a wood products company per se, the world’s largest retailer has an enormous footprint in the forest. The combined factors of its sales volume and its vast network of highlycontrolled supply chains gives Wal-Mart the potential to generate enormous negative impacts for biodiversity, forest-dependent communities, and the global climate – and, conversely, the opportunity to positively influence the international timber sector. Ninety percent of Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. There were 7.2 billion visits to Wal-Mart in 2006 – more than Earth’s
2
It is not inherently bad that more people can afford to buy more furniture, especially made from a material that is, in theory, a renewable resource. The problem is that timber is currently being harvested illegally from forests around the world to meet this demand. This harvest is not sustainable, and what’s being lost is anything but renewable. Illegal logging and associated trade have well-documented environmental, social and economic impacts. Illegal logging is fueled by a global market where few actors – factory suppliers, importers, retailers, or consumers – have the incentive to ask questions. Wal-Mart, with a business strategy that has insisted on low prices before all else,5 is currently a central participant in this “no questions asked” market. Although the company has stated its aim, to “develop transparency” in its wood sourcing,6 EIA investigations documented in this report reveal the use of illegal and high-risk wood in a wide variety of products on Wal-Mart’s shelves. On November 15, 2007, Wal-Mart released its “Sustainability Progress Report”, a
© Dave Currey / EIA / Telapak
INTRODUCTION: WAL-MART IN THE WOODS