IKEA bought into Romanian forests — then investigators linked its wood to protected areas

Ingka Investments, part of the IKEA system, bought Romanian forestland from 2015 and became the country's largest private forest owner, with about 51,000 hectares in Romania. IKEA also relied on Romanian manufacturers and suppliers for furniture sold across Europe.

In April 2024, Agent Green and Bruno Manser Fonds examined nine Romanian forest areas: seven owned by Ingka and two public forests linked to IKEA's supply chain. They reported more than 50 suspected forestry-law violations or poor-management practices, including intensive felling, soil damage from logging roads and logging in forests that overlapped EU protected areas.

Greenpeace separately linked seven manufacturers supplying IKEA products to wood from high-conservation-value forests in the Romanian Carpathians, including Natura 2000 sites. It said at least 30 products from those suppliers, including Ingolf chairs and Sniglar baby cribs, were found in IKEA stores across 13 countries.

IKEA and Ingka strongly disputed the findings. Inter IKEA said its review found no wrongdoing, that suppliers complied with local and EU rules, and that authorities had approved the logging. The investigations nevertheless turned IKEA's forest ownership and sourcing model into a public test of whether legal timber paperwork was enough for a biodiversity-risk supply chain.