• RESEARCH 2025-2027
  • IKEA’s  Ilegal deforestation , Carphantian Mountains  ROMANIA





"Om in Rai” meaning ”Man in Heaven" in Romanian is a deliberate paradox.
"Om" a sacred sound in many traditions, symbolizes harmony, unity and the divine, qualities these forests embody. It evokes a multi layered concept - the sacredness of Romania’s old-growth forests, often called the "lungs of Europe" for their biodiversity and spiritual significance.
Om in Rai will unfold across multiple art forms, each designed to expose the false narrative of "Sustainable" capitalism and the ecocide it perpetuates.

Behind its wholesome and eco-friendly image, the Swedish furniture giant IKEA - the world's biggest consumer of wood - has some highly unscrupulous practices

IKEA is directly linked to the systematic destruction of Romania’s ancient forests, including protected Natura 2000 sites in the Carpathian Mountains. Investigations by Greenpeace, Agent Green, and the Bruno Manser Fonds reveal that at least seven of IKEA’s wood suppliers are involved in illegal logging, exploiting Romania’s endemic corruption, weak law enforcement, and loopholes in certification systems like FSC.




Woodcutters at work. A job at the National Forestry Agency was the only option left  at their age.
Portrait taken deep in the Transylvanian mountains in 2025 , in a non regulated area.




How is IKEA furniture so cheap?





 Romania holds 70% of Europe’s remaining virgin forests, but its post-communist privatization and EU integration created a "liberated market" for cheap timber, fueling a ‘wood mafia’ that operates with impunity. 

The EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), meant to curb this, has been delayed and watered down, allowing illegal timber to keep flowing into Europe—with IKEA as a major beneficiary.



IKEA’s low prices rely on:

Mass-scale production (economies of scale) and bulk material

 Cheap, lightweight materials (particleboard, fiberboard) and flat-packing to cut shipping/assembly

 Exploiting low-cost, high-volume timber from regions like Romania, where corruption and weak enforcement allow illegal wood to enter the supply chain at a fraction of the cost euro.



The new Arte documentary looks into the Scandinavian multinational with an insatiable appetite for raw materials, or how IKEA  plunders the planet.






The Flaws in FSC Certification


Investigative journalists working for Disclose spent over a year investigating the production chain of the furniture giant which generated a 44.6 billion euros revenue in 2022 and attracts over 5 billion visitors to its stores and website every year.

In Romania, where  IKEA owns 50,000 hectares of forests, activists are risking their lives mobilizing against the timber mafia.