A Global Witness investigation in 2019 found that ten European companies had sourced over $2.26 million of wood from a company engaged in illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Illegal logging in the DRC is one of the main deforestation threats in the country, which has the world's second largest tropical rainforest. In one case, Global Witness accused IFCDO, a timber trading company, of harvesting timber outside of its approved annual harvest area. The same company also allegedly failed to pay taxes and violated local labour laws. The investigation found that much of the illegally sourced timber was placed on Vietnamese and Chinese markets, which have fewer checks in place to prevent the import of illegal timber.