How much wood from Russia did IKEA use?
We have stopped global purchasing of wood from Russia following Inter IKEA Group's decision to scale down business in the market.
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).
Key metrics
Amount of virgin wood used roundwood equivalent (RWE): 918,194 m3
Contribution to total IKEA virgin wood used for home furnishing products: 6%
Approximate proportion of Russia’s total harvest used by IKEA suppliers: 0.4%
Approximate proportion of Russia’s forests that are FSC-certified: 7%
Years in IKEA supply chain: 30+
Regions and types of forests
In FY22, virgin wood used for IKEA products which had Russian origin mainly came from boreal forests in European Russia (731,160 m3) and Siberia (187,034 m3).
Wood species
When we allowed our suppliers to purchase wood from Russia, 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 Russia for solid wood applications were pine, birch and spruce. IKEA no longer allows suppliers to purchase wood from Russia.
Concerns
When we allowed our suppliers to purchase wood from Russia, the risk for illegal logging was higher, so we needed to be extra vigilant. To minimise the risk of wood entering our supply chain that did not meet our own requirements, including legal requirements, we required our suppliers to only source FSC-certified wood-based materials. Our suppliers were also required to collect evidence across the supply chain to demonstrate compliance and our experts on the ground regularly performed IWAY forestry and wood supply chain audits.
Recent developments/actions
For several decades we have worked alongside different partners in Russia to improve forest management. One example is our partnership with WWF. Since 2002, WWF and IKEA have been collaborating to improve the environmental, economic and social conditions for Russian forests. Working together with timber companies and retailers, as well as other NGOs and local communities, we have helped strengthen sustainable forest management and timber harvesting, while protecting some of the world’s largest remaining wilderness areas. Read more about our work with WWF in Russia.
In recent years stakeholders within the forestry sector raised concerns about the misuse of sanitary felling in parts of Russia. Working with others, in 2018 we supported a report providing in-depth insights on the issue and recommended stricter measures.
Sanitary felling, when applied correctly, is a forestry practice where diseased or damaged trees are harvested to help improve the health, productivity and also protect the remaining forest. In FY21, we lost confidence that the use of sanitary felling guaranteed responsible forest management across all parts of Russia based on insights collected while conducting our due diligence processes. Therefore, in June 2021, IKEA decided to temporarily ban the use of sanitary felled wood from Russia Far East and Siberia.
Due to additional decisions, IKEA no longer allows suppliers to purchase wood from Russia.