Andrei Ciurcanu - Dozens of companies in the wood processing industry continue to use cloned photos for timber transports, despite authorities promising a few months ago to severely sanction those that try to cheat the Wood Track and Trace System (SUMAL).
- New evidence shows how thousands of cubic meters of wood are transported every month by companies using false images or images where the cargo is not visible. Among those using non-compliant photos are forestry districts within the National Forestry Administration ROMSILVA.
- The use of false images in SUMAL constitutes a violation of national legislation and European Union regulations regarding timber traceability. It also breaches the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which will come into effect on December 30, 2024.
- The new regulation requires companies in the wood processing sector to ensure product traceability and to guarantee that furniture does not contain illegal wood.
The Problematic Forestry Districts
RISE has identified several state Forestry Districts from different regions of the country that have used non-compliant photos for timber transports in SUMAL. These include the Comana, Bolintin, Turnu Măgurele, Dorohoi, Alexandria, Șimian, and Poiana Mare Forestry Districts.
Over 600 cubic meters of wood were recorded in SUMAL with images showing elements also discovered by the Forest Guard in investigations regarding cloned photos: pixels of the photographed screen, edges of an electronic device, reflections of light sources, or blurred images.
Most of these transports took place in April this year, around the time of the Environment Minister’s conference where he threatened harsh sanctions and criminal charges agains those that want to circumvent and cheat the track and trace system. There were cases where some ROMSILVA vehicles appeared with non-compliant photos in May, June, and July of this year as well.
Click on the markers on the map for details related to transports and clone photos. Each marker represents one transport. Zoom in to discover more transports made from the same location. Click on a photo to open it.
At least one of the ROMSILVA vehicles identified by RISE has previously been sanctioned by the Forest Guard for the same offenses. This concerns a forestry tractor belonging to the Teleorman Forestry District. Last year, inspectors from Bucharest discovered 170 cubic meters of wood transported using false photos. The involved forestry employees were fined over €3,000.
Cătălin Grigoraș, associate professor at the National Center for Media Forensics at the University of Colorado and a forensic expert in the audio-video field, confirmed RISE’s findings and noted discrepancies in most of the photos for transports carried out by ROMSILVA trucks:
“In the images, display matrices, display edges/frames, as well as light reflections are distinguishable. In other cases, I found that the same photo was used multiple times.”
This concerns a truck registered in SUMAL under the Comana Forestry District. According to data from the timber traceability system, the same set of photos was used for six different transports organized over three consecutive days in May this year. In total, nearly 60 cubic meters of wood were transported.
Rise Project reporters presented some non-compliant photos from the identified forestry districts to Romsilva HQ and requested a comment regarding the cloned photos used by their own employees.
“The situations you refer to are accidental, and we will take the necessary measures to eliminate them entirely as much as possible in the future. Additionally, the forestry personnel issuing transport permits at the forestry districts you mentioned will be warned about the reported irregularities, and if these issues recur, they will face legal consequences,” responded the forestry administration.
The ROMSILVA management in Bucharest added that they will request new training sessions for their employees regarding the use of SUMAL, and they plan to invest in implementing a centralized CCTV system across Romania:
“The Ministry of Environment is working on a project that should be implemented nationally. Depending on the requirements of this project, ROMSILVA will invest in a CCTV system,” answered the RNP press office.
However, no funds have been spent on this investment to date.
Through this project, the state administration intends to install surveillance cameras for timber transports, allowing traffic monitoring and real-time alerts about trucks considered suspicious.
Any legal violations detected through AI analysis have been sanctioned according to the law, especially those involving the use of cloned photos, the Ministry of Environment reacted regarding the cloned cases discovered in the forestry districts of the National Forestry Administration.
“RNP-Romsilva is no exception to the application of the law; on the contrary, it is called upon to ensure model forest management for Romanian forestry,” the ministry added.
Trees from state forests don’t just “leave” with cloned photos made by ROMSILVA employees but also with photos taken by private companies working with the state administration.
A few days after the conference organized by the Ministry of Environment in Bucharest, a set of suspicious photos caught the attention of RISE reporters. The transport was organized by a large forestry company, Susai Servcom from Caraș-Severin, one of Romania’s richest forest counties.
Using databases and artificial intelligence, we searched Susai Servcom’s transport history and found that in the past two years, two of the company’s trucks loaded at least 61 transports into SUMAL with non-compliant photos—almost 2,000 cubic meters of wood. Susai’s most important partner is ROMSILVA.
Some of the 61 transports identified by RISE were also discovered by employees of the Caraș-Severin Forest Guard, who filed a complaint for computer fraud and transport of timber without legal provenance.
The data shows that for some transports, photos recorded in SUMAL were actually taken of other photos. Many of these pictures were used multiple times for different transports organized months apart.
Expert Cătălin Grigoraș analyzed the dataset for one of the trucks and confirmed that the same photo was used for transports recorded in SUMAL in December 2022, as well as in February, April, and May 2023.
For the transport in April 2023, one of the photos uploaded to the traceability system shows what appears to be a photograph of a printed sheet of paper. The detail that gave away the copy— in the photo uploaded to SUMAL, the legs and trousers of a person are visible beneath what looks like a sheet of paper showing a truck loaded with wood.
Some of the clones identified by RISE were also discovered by police officers and inspectors from the Forest Guard. Moreover, Susai Servcom has been fined multiple times this year for the irregularities found. The Caraș-Severin Forestry Directorate has filed a criminal complaint for computer fraud.
“The photos uploaded were not taken directly of the transport vehicle but of other electronic devices or other media (‘photo within a photo’),” states the criminal complaint against SUSAI.
The case is now being investigated by prosecutors at the Caransebeș District Prosecutor’s Office. In a reply to RISE, the magistrates confirmed that there is an ongoing investigation regarding computer fraud and the transport of timber without proper documents.
A Breach in the Traceability System
The use of clones nationwide has also been confirmed by the Romanian General Police Inspectorate (RGPI). In an official response, the RGPI explained that the illegal method is frequently used by operators in the sector “to ship and transport timber of illegal origin, especially when making multiple transports under the same transport permit or to carry out transports from a different location/different load than declared in the SUMAL 2.0 IT system.”
In the case of Susai, investigators were surprised not only by the number of clones and the modus operandi but also by the owners of the company. The company is led by Mihai Onescu, a former member of the Romanian Forest Association (ASFOR), one of the largest organizations in the country that lobbies for companies in the timber harvesting sector and has condemned illegal logging.
Asked to explain the use of non-compliant photos, Mihai Onescu denied any company involvement in illegal timber harvesting and transport. Regarding the cloned images, he claimed it was merely a human error.
“The non-compliant photos represent negligence or convenience of the personnel servicing the transport, who out of ignorance acted repeatedly,” replied Mihai Onescu, who added that he is not aware of any criminal complaints against the company he leads.
Onescu stated that he no longer holds any position and has retired from ASFOR’s leadership, where, alongside his colleagues, he fought for “legal practices, legal and transparent competition in the forestry sector.”
Hiding the true origin of the wood and breaking the traceability chain is a violation of European regulations, stated David Gehl from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an NGO that investigates environmental crimes worldwide.
Gehl added that a new European Regulation (EUDR) will come into effect at the end of 2024, and clone transports represent a vulnerability for all companies operating in Romania and exporting wood products.
“All products placed on the European market or exported from the European Union must provide full traceability back to the forest of origin (…) EUDR is very clear on this — if non-compliant wood exists and is mixed into the supply chain, then everything that could be contaminated is considered illegal when placed on the European market,” explained Gehl.
Documents obtained by RISE show exactly how timber transported with cloned photos can affect the traceability chain under the provisions of the new EUDR regulation, as well as how companies involved in the timber trade can be made vulnerable.
During the period of transports with non-compliant photos, Susai Servcom delivered products to the giant Yildiz Entegre — a Turkish company that owns an MDF (medium-density fiberboard) factory in Romania.
Yildiz Entegre, in turn, supplies wood products to the largest international DIY chains — Dedeman, Leroy Merlin, Hornbach — and also provides wood materials to companies that produce furniture for IKEA.
“International buyers are not doing enough to clean their supply chains and ensure they are not fueling corruption and illegal forest exploitation happening in Romania (…) A breach like this represents a disruption in traceability,” said David Gehl, adding that the Romanian Government must do much more to strengthen and enforce laws.
FINES AND CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS
Last year, the Ministry of Environment conducted a pilot test using Google Vertex AI, an artificial intelligence platform, which analyzed all timber transports registered in SUMAL in November 2023.
11,000 permits (400,000 photos) were flagged as suspicious out of a total of 400,000 permits (1.6 million photos) uploaded in the fall of last year. At the end of the investigation, seven criminal complaints for computer fraud were filed, and the National Police and Forest Guard issued fines and confiscated timber worth nearly €840,000.
Using database analyses, RISE reporters tracked a number of vehicles and spent months analyzing transports uploaded into SUMAL before and after the Ministry of Environment’s April conference. We wanted to see the impact and reaction of companies in the forestry sector following the statements of Environment Minister Mircea Fechet.
We found hundreds of transports across Romania with non-compliant photos uploaded into the timber traceability system. The photos were used both for trucks and for vehicles under 3.5 tons. We located each transport and built a nationwide picture of the phenomenon.
Click on the markers on the map for details related to transports and clone photos. Each marker represents one transport. Zoom in and out to interact. Click on a photo to open it.
“The images contain traces of pixels and matrices, the screen and edges of screens of electronic devices, as well as perspective distortions caused by the camera’s position relative to the photographs printed on sheets of paper,” explained expert Cătălin Grigoraș.
Besides manipulated photos, we discovered dozens of other images where the timber load is not visible, as required by current legislation. Instead, the photos show car body parts or vehicle interiors, blank sheets of paper, pieces of furniture. In other words, SUMAL lacks the capability to identify and block illegal images from being used for timber transports.
However, the Ministry of Environment says it is prepared for the next steps in the fight against cloned images. Recently, the institution announced a new contract with the same company that verified transports in November last year. The new contract is essentially an extension of the pilot test that used artificial intelligence to detect illegal photos in November 2023. The central environmental authority stated it is also considering real-time analysis and identification of cloned photos.
“The option (…) will be examined as part of the business analysis conducted in preparation for developing the SUMAL 3.0 application suite. However, any new functionality of SUMAL 3.0 must be designed considering real conditions of application use, namely: areas without GSM signal, limited data transfer possibilities, high variability of mobile device models used, and frequent operating system updates,” the Ministry of Environment responded officially to RISE.
Environmental activists consider this option a necessity.
“Implementing this mechanism could block the generation of the transport permit before the illegality is committed, if the photo is a clone. It could also help detect undervalued volumes of wood in transport documents in real time and send automatic alerts to control authorities,” explained Ciprian Gălușcă, forest campaign coordinator at Greenpeace Romania.
However, the Greenpeace representative believes that the Ministry of Environment’s messages over the last three years about the scale of illegal timber on the market are based on superficial evaluations of the phenomenon and do not deter timber thieves.
“Unfortunately, alongside this public discourse, the authorities are moving very slowly in implementing improvements for SUMAL. It’s no surprise that economic operators still see the control authorities as cumbersome and very easy to circumvent.”
Author: Andrei Ciurcanu
Fact-Checking: Roxana Jipa
Romana Puiuleț 
Rise Project 
