The illegal logging of tropical hardwoods is devastating global forests. This destruction is driven by the demand for cheap timber products and it will continue until timber suppliers choose or are required to document and verify their sources. Until then illegal timber will continue to flow un-checked into the marketplace with consumers receiving no assurances about the products they purchase. In 2000 the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) claimed that illegal logging accounted for 50% - 80% of the entire log production in Indonesia, Brazil and Cameroon.

Whilst efforts to tackle illegal logging, such as forest certification and better law enforcement, have been initiated the problem of illegal logging continues to increase. In 2005 the WWF report 'Failing the Forests' estimated that EU countries imported roughly 20 million cubic metres of illegal timber annually from the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin, East Africa, Indonesia, the Baltic States and Russia. It was estimated that this trade accounted for around €3 billion of the global €10 -15 billion in lost revenue due to illegal logging each year.

Furthermore there have been recent allegations that major retailers in Europe and North America have made inaccurate or misleading statements about the sources of their timber products when they have little or no independent evidence to back up such claims.

The problem of illegal logging is increasingly recognised, creating the need for simple, practical and cost effective methods to combat it.