How much wood from Czech Republic did IKEA use?
We require that suppliers use Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified or recycled wood in our home furnishing products. All information presented here is valid for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) with a reporting period from 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022 and, unless otherwise specified, applies to virgin wood used in IKEA home furnishing products (excluding paper).
The Czech Republic is an important wood sourcing market for IKEA suppliers. It contains a highly productive wood industry focused on engineered wood solutions, such as particle board.
In recent years, small private forest owners in the market have joined forces to form a group with the aim to improve management of their forests and increase the share of FSC-certified forests. Whilst more remains to be done, strong progress has been seen. One especially good outcome from this work is how small holders in other markets have been curious to learn from their approach, inspired to start taking similar steps.
Amount of virgin wood used roundwood equivalent (RWE): 415,683 m3
Contribution to total IKEA virgin wood used for home furnishing products: 3%
Approximate proportion of the Czech Republic’s total harvest used by IKEA suppliers: 2%
Approximate proportion of the Czech Republic’s forests that are FSC-certified: 5%
Years in IKEA supply chain: 30+
Regions and types of forests
In FY22, virgin wood of Czech Republican origin used in IKEA products mainly came from actively managed temperate forest in the east region.
Wood species
In the Czech Republic, a mix of different wood species was sourced by sub-suppliers to mainly produce engineered composite wood-based material for IKEA home furnishing products. In FY22, the top species sourced from the Czech Republic for solid wood applications were pine, beech and ash.
Recent developments/actions
In recent years the Czech Republic has experienced large-scale outbreaks of spruce bark beetle attacks, affecting substantial areas of forest. To better understand how to mitigate and help prevent this from happening again, and to learn the reasons behind this unusual scale of the outbreak, our wood supply and forestry specialists have made field visits, met with scientists, foresters and industry. One example could be to include more diverse tree species in order to build more resilient forest ecosystems to fight against climate change impacts such as insect outbreaks and storms.