Hundreds of thousands of IKEA products are being made from illegally and unethically sourced wood, threatening habitats and endangering animals’ lives, Channel 4 News can reveal.

Trees in Ukraine are being illegally felled at an unsustainable rate by companies selling their wood to IKEA. That’s despite all IKEA timber being certified by the Forest Stewardship Council - the body set up to protect forests.

Locals in Ukraine accuse IKEA of being interested only in “timber and business”, and say that government inspectors are turning a blind eye.

The company claims to be the largest producer of wood furniture in the world, and says it loves wood and the forests it comes from.

Enough trees were illegally felled in Ukraine in Spring 2018 alone to produce 250,000 wooden IKEA chairs.

It is from these mountains, devastated by deforestation, that many well-known IKEA products begin their journeys to our homes.

IKEA furniture made from many of these trees is, campaigners say, “100% illegal” but the government doesn’t enforce it.

IKEA says that all their suppliers must respect national laws, and that all their timber is FSC certified.

Wood processing company VGSM handles much of the wood in the area for IKEA - and also happens to supply a vast factory in Romania creating IKEA products.

They have been accused of harvesting illegal wood for IKEA by NGOs and Ukrainian authorities. They deny it.

Environmental NGO Earthsight says that it’s not just IKEA, the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) are responsible too. They say they have uncovered “illegal wood, human rights abuses, corruption all around the world, involving FSC certified companies.”

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) told us they were “fully aware” of problems in Ukraine:

IKEA told Channel 4 News that they have appointed an independent auditor to investigate the allegations and that they do not accept an illegally logged wood in their products.