Ikea accused of harmful wood sourcing in Europe’s forests

Greenpeace International alleges the furniture maker — which has long faced backlash over its sourcing — is falling short in its efforts to protect biodiversity.

Ikea has faced backlash from environmentalists over its wood consumption and practices for years. U.K-based Earthsight, for instance, has previously accused the furniture retailer of selling beech chairs made from wood harvested illegally. Meanwhile, environmental groups Agent Green and the Bruno Manser Fonds published a report in 2024 spotlighting Ikea’s alleged destructive logging practices in the forests the retailer owns or sources wood from in Romania.

Ikea has publicly stated that as a large consumer of wood, it aims to “use its size and scale to continue in improving forest management practices and raising industry standards,” according to a press release published in 2025. As part of that claim, Ikea partnered with the European Forest Institute and non-profit Preferred by Nature to allocate 16,000 hectares of forests to research. The collaboration aimed to adjust existing forest management methods and improve overall forest resilience and biodiversity.

Greenpeace alleged that despite Ikea promoting sustainability as part of its corporate ethos, the retailer’s actions “fall short of implementing measurements to protect ecosystems and what more it should do to protect biodiversity,” per the report.

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