The second breach regarding the fraudulent sourcing of legal wood emerged last week, when the National Forestry Guard confiscated 13,500 cubic meters of timber from an operator in Suceava County. This operator used an existing loophole in SUMAL 2.0, which states that wood purchased from an EU member state does not need to be registered in SUMAL until it enters the buyer's warehouse. Consequently, the trucks transporting the wood in Romania operate based solely on an invoice issued by the seller.
We appreciate the action taken by the Forestry Guard, which, following an investigation lasting more than six months, clearly proved how the loophole in SUMAL is being used, a loophole that WWF-Romania warned about three years ago. Moreover, WWF has continuously monitored how operators attempt to use the „loopholes” offered by the system and has provided solutions that we hope the authorities will take into consideration when developing the new SUMAL 3.0, which will be launched in a few months.
The case in Suceava demonstrates how a Romanian operator used fictitious documents issued by EU countries, for two years, to launder wood of uncertain origin, which would have filled approximately 270 trailer trucks. However, these transports did not actually occur. Instead, the operator registered in the documents the illegally-obtained timber, already existing in its warehouse, as legally-sourced.
WWF's Recommendation to Close the Gap in SUMAL
To close this loophole in SUMAL 2.0, WWF proposes:
- Considering timber materials as „goods with high fiscal risk within the national territory” (Emergency Ordinance No. 41/2022 for preventing and combating illicit trade of goods).
- At the point of entry into the country for timber materials coming from the intracommunity area, economic operators should be required to declare the transport in the RO e-Transport System, based on intracommunity documents, providing the road transport operator with the unique identification code (UIT) for the transported goods.
- Operators should be required to register transports at the road border crossing point upon entering Romania in SUMAL 2.0 Avize, based on the unique code generated by the RO e-Transport System.