The New Republic
PROVIDED PHOTOGRAPHS (X2) Some of TNR’s best pieces are its most unexpected.
提供的照片 (X2) TNR 的一些最好的作品是最出乎意料的。
Such was the case with this piece, a deeply reported dive into furniture giant IKEA’s desperate race to capture the wood in one of Europe’s last old-growth forests, in Romania.
这件作品就是这样，深入报道了家具巨头宜家在罗马尼亚欧洲最后的原始森林之一的木材的绝望竞赛。
The former Eastern-bloc country had been cut off from most of Europe for decades, but its 2007 entry into the European Union “created a massive, liberated market for the country’s cheap, abundant timber and the inexpensive labor required to extract it, conditions that encouraged Austrian timber companies and Swedish furniture firms to set up shop.” Sammon’s narrative follows a handful of protesters who are working against mighty odds to protect the forest, launching drones in attempts to get photos and video of what’s happening in the heavily guarded forests.
这个前东欧集团国家几十年来一直与欧洲大部分地区隔绝，但它 2007 年加入欧盟“为该国廉价、丰富的木材和开采木材所需的廉价劳动力创造了一个巨大的、自由的市场，这些条件鼓励奥地利木材公司和瑞典家具公司开设商店。”萨蒙的叙述讲述了少数抗议者冒着巨大的困难努力保护森林，发射无人机试图拍摄戒备森严的森林中发生的情况的照片和视频。
A wholly original story you wouldn’t have read anywhere else.
一个完全原创的故事，你在其他地方不会读到。
—Michael Tomasky, editor, The New Republic
——迈克尔·托马斯基，《新共和》编辑
Logging season in Romania runs seven months, from mid-September through April, a frenzy of chain saws chewing through millions of spruce, pine, oak, maple, beech, fir.
罗马尼亚的伐木季节从九月中旬到四月持续七个月，链锯疯狂地砍伐着数百万棵云杉、松树、橡树、枫树、山毛榉和冷杉。
Some of the wood is cut legally; most of it is not, and violence between the logging industry and its opponents breaks out often.
一些木材是合法砍伐的；大多数情况并非如此，伐木业与其反对者之间的暴力行为经常爆发。
Early this season, two Bucharest-based documentary filmmakers, working on a project about the illicit wood trade, set out to find a large, treacherous-looking clear-cut in Suceava, a northern county where some of the country’s largest sawmills are based and where Ikea owns thousands of hectares .
本季初，两名来自布加勒斯特的纪录片制作人正在制作一个有关非法木材贸易的项目，他们出发前往苏恰瓦寻找一片看起来凶险的大片森林。苏恰瓦是一个北部县，该国一些最大的锯木厂就位于该县，宜家也在那里拥有数千公顷的土地。
The filmmakers—Mihai Dragolea, a director, and Radu Mocanu, a cameraman—were shadowing a local environmentalist, Tiberiu Bosutar.
电影制作人——导演米哈伊·德拉戈莱亚(Mihai Dragolea)和摄影师拉杜·莫卡努(Radu Mocanu)——正在跟踪当地的环保主义者蒂贝里乌·博苏塔尔(Tiberiu Bosutar)。
A former wood chipper turned activist, Bosutar was no stranger to illegal timber.
博苏塔尔曾是一名木材削片工，后来成为一名活动人士，他对非法木材并不陌生。
Over the course of five years, he had built a reputation as something of a forest vigilante, accosting loggers engaged in questionable activity or following trucks stuffed with wood contraband, then streaming the encounters on Facebook Live.
在五年的时间里，他赢得了森林治安维护者的声誉，他会与从事可疑活动的伐木工人搭讪，或者跟踪装满木材违禁品的卡车，然后在 Facebook 直播上直播这些遭遇。
Just a few weeks before, he’d gone viral broadcasting an attempt to detain a truck carrying illegal logs; when his white SUV ran out of gas, he flagged down an ambulance and kept up the chase.
就在几周前，他试图扣留一辆运载非法原木的卡车的报道在网上疯传。当他的白色SUV没油时，他叫了一辆救护车并继续追赶。
But the filmmakers’ trip wasn’t meant to be a stunt.
但电影制片人的旅行并不是一场噱头。
The group took Bosutar’s personal vehicle, well-known in the area, and lingered for coffee at a nearby gas station to make their presence known and prove that they had not come to antagonize.
这群人乘坐博苏塔尔在该地区很有名的私人车辆，在附近的一个加油站逗留喝咖啡，以表明他们的存在，并证明他们并不是来对抗的。
Then, with Bosutar behind the wheel, the person who’d tipped them off about the cut riding shotgun, and the filmmakers in the back, they took to the highway, turned left up a dirt road, and began to climb.
然后，驾驶座上的是博苏塔尔，还有那个向他们通报了被砍骑霰弹枪的消息的人，以及后面的电影制片人，他们上了高速公路，左转上了一条土路，然后开始爬坡。
It didn’t take long before they saw what they came for: stumps.
没过多久，他们就看到了他们来这里的目的：树桩。
“The forest was fucked up to the bone,” Dragolea told me.
“森林被彻底搞砸了，”德拉戈莱告诉我。
“It was really damaged.” No surprise, really, and on any other day, Bosutar might have taken to Facebook.
“真的被损坏了。”确实，这并不奇怪，换作其他日子，博苏塔尔可能会使用 Facebook。
Instead, he chose to call the forest ranger’s office.
相反，他选择给护林员办公室打电话。
It was an ideal opportunity, he thought, to showcase the potential for communication between activists, law enforcement, and loggers, and fulfill a New Year’s resolution to try a less combative approach.
他认为，这是一个理想的机会，可以展示活动人士、执法部门和伐木者之间沟通的潜力，并实现尝试一种不那么好斗的方式的新年决心。
“It was a good moment to show that we are open to dialogue.”
“这是一个表明我们愿意对话的好时机。”
Not long after, they heard the whinge of engines; soon, two SUVs arrived.
不久之后，他们听到了发动机的轰鸣声。很快，两辆SUV来了。
Out jumped not local police, but a horde: 15 men armed with bats and axes.
跳出来的不是当地警察，而是一群人：15 名手持棍棒和斧头的男子。
The documentary crew broke for Bosutar’s car but couldn’t get the locks in time.
纪录片摄制组试图找到博苏塔尔的车，但未能及时上锁。
The attackers pried the doors open, snapped the key, slashed the tires, and smashed the camera equipment.
袭击者撬开车门，折断钥匙，划破轮胎，并砸坏摄像设备。
They beat Mocanu, trapped between the car and the mountainside, unconscious.
他们殴打了莫卡努，莫卡努被困在汽车和山腰之间，不省人事。
They clubbed Dragolea in the face.
他们用棍棒打德拉戈莱亚的脸。
The director dove down the nearby ravine, where he hid under the roots of a fallen tree and called the police, begging them to come with their sirens on.
导演跳下附近的峡谷，躲在一棵倒下的树根下，并打电话给警察，请求他们拉响警报。
“I said, ‘They’re killing the journalists in the forest, and they are tracking me down,’” he recounted.
“我说，‘他们正在森林里杀害记者，他们正在追踪我，’”他回忆道。
“I knew cases where people had died in the forest, I saw axes around me.
“我知道有人在森林里死亡的案例，我看到斧子在我周围。
If someone didn’t call, we were going to die for sure.”
如果没有人打电话，我们肯定会死。”
Meanwhile, with Bosutar still in the car, the attackers were attempting to push the vehicle off the mountainside, hoisting the chassis up on two wheels.
与此同时，博苏塔尔仍在车内，袭击者试图将车辆推离山坡，用两个轮子抬起底盘。
When he agreed to get out, they bludgeoned him, stripped him naked, and posted photos of him online, blood streaming down his face, with the caption, in Romanian: “For the virgin forests, I take my shirt off.” They directed him to walk down the hill until he encountered a second group of attackers.
当他同意出去时，他们殴打了他，把他脱光了，并在网上发布了他的照片，血从他的脸上流下来，并用罗马尼亚语说明：“为了原始森林，我脱掉衬衫。”他们指示他走下山，直到遇到第二批袭击者。
But the police got there first, along with ambulances, which took all three men, two of whom passed out in transit, to the hospital.
但警察和救护车首先赶到，将三名男子全部送往医院，其中两人在途中昏倒。
Not long after, the incident made international news via an Associated Press wire .
不久之后，这一事件通过美联社专线成为国际新闻。
The beating was even picked up stateside by The Washington Post .
美国本土的《华盛顿邮报》甚至报道了这次殴打事件。
There wasn’t much more help on the way.
路上没有更多的帮助。
A police spokesman told the AP that law enforcement would treat the attack with “the utmost attention”; less than a week later, only four of the 15 assailants had been charged, not with attempted murder but with the lighter charge of brawling.
警方发言人告诉美联社，执法部门将“高度重视”处理这起袭击事件。不到一周后，15 名袭击者中只有 4 人受到指控，罪名不是谋杀未遂，而是较轻的斗殴罪名。
All were out of jail, pending trial.
所有人都已出狱，等待审判。
Fearing for his life and his family, Bosutar fled from Suceava to Bucharest.
由于担心自己和家人的生命安全，博苏塔尔从苏恰瓦逃往布加勒斯特。
“This is not the first time I’ve had an attempt on my life,” he told me outside the hotel where he was hiding.
“这不是我第一次尝试杀人，”他在他藏身的酒店外告诉我。
“It’s been three or four times already that I’ve been attacked.
“我已经被袭击了三四次了。
Do I simply admit that this is a failed state, that I don’t have an ally within it?”
我是否只是承认这是一个失败的国家，承认我在其中没有盟友？”
“I don’t know what I should do,” he added, and started to cry.
“我不知道我应该做什么，”他补充道，然后开始哭泣。
In an accident of geography and history, Romania is home to one of the largest and most important old-growth forests left in the world.
由于地理和历史的偶然，罗马尼亚拥有世界上最大、最重要的原始森林之一。
Its Carpathian mountain chain, which wraps like a seat belt across the country’s middle and upper shoulder, hosts at least half of Europe’s remaining old growth outside Scandinavia and around 70 percent of the continent’s virgin forest.
其喀尔巴阡山脉像安全带一样缠绕在该国的中上部肩部，拥有欧洲斯堪的纳维亚半岛以外至少一半的剩余原始森林以及该大陆约 70% 的原始森林。
It’s been referred to as the Amazon of Europe, a comparison apt and ominous in equal measure , because of the speed at which it, like the Amazon itself, is disappearing.
它被称为欧洲的亚马逊，这个比喻既恰当又不祥，因为它像亚马逊本身一样消失的速度很快。
Most of Europe was rapidly deforested during the industrial era; less than 4 percent of EU forestland remains intact.
在工业时代，欧洲大部分地区的森林被迅速砍伐。欧盟不到 4% 的林地保持完好。
Romania, far enough from the continent’s industrial centers and long a closed-off member of the Soviet bloc, remained a shining exception.
罗马尼亚距离非洲大陆的工业中心足够远，而且长期以来一直是苏联集团的封闭成员，但它仍然是一个闪亮的例外。
During the country’s communist period, the government converted the forests to public ownership and kept them off global export markets, enshrining the forest management trends of an ancien regime.
在该国的共产主义时期，政府将森林转变为公有制，并将其排除在全球出口市场之外，体现了旧政权的森林管理趋势。
The result is that Romania retains some of the rare spruce, beech, and oak forests that qualify as old- or primary-growth, having never been excessively logged, altered by human activity, or artificially replanted.
结果是，罗马尼亚保留了一些稀有的云杉、山毛榉和橡树林，这些森林符合古老或原生林的条件，从未被过度砍伐、人类活动改变或人工重新种植。
But the fall of communism in 1989 dissolved one layer of protection for those forests, and the subsequent wave of privatization inaugurated widespread corruption.
但 1989 年共产主义的垮台摧毁了对这些森林的一层保护，随后的私有化浪潮引发了广泛的腐败。
In 2007, Romania’s entry to the European Union created a massive, liberated market for the country’s cheap, abundant timber and the inexpensive labor required to extract it, conditions that encouraged Austrian timber companies and Swedish furniture firms to set up shop.
2007年，罗马尼亚加入欧盟，为该国廉价、丰富的木材和开采木材所需的廉价劳动力创造了一个巨大的、自由的市场，这些条件鼓励奥地利木材公司和瑞典家具公司开设商店。
Succeeding fractious, ineffectual regimes enacted further pro-market reforms and did little to curb corruption; in the final months of 2021, the country’s prime minister designate found himself unable to form a government at all.
继任的暴躁、低效的政权实施了进一步的亲市场改革，但在遏制腐败方面却收效甚微。 2021 年的最后几个月，该国候任总理发现自己根本无法组建政府。
Add to that the astronomical growth of the fast furniture industry , which particularly relies on the spruce and beech that populate these forests, and the result has been a delirium of deforestation.
再加上快速家具行业的天文数字增长，尤其依赖于这些森林中的云杉和山毛榉，其结果是森林砍伐的疯狂。
There’s one obvious, notable beneficiary of this situation: Ikea.
这种情况有一个明显的、值得注意的受益者：宜家。
The company is now the largest individual consumer of wood in the world, its appetite growing by two million trees a year.
该公司目前是世界上最大的木材个人消费者，其需求每年以 200 万棵树的速度增长。
According to some estimates, it sources up to 10 percent of its wood from the relatively small country of Romania, and has long enjoyed relationships with mills and manufacturers in the region.
据估计，该公司 10% 的木材来自相对较小的国家罗马尼亚，并且长期以来与该地区的工厂和制造商保持着合作关系。
In 2015, it began buying up forestland in bulk ; within months it became, and remains, Romania’s largest private landowner.
2015年，开始批量收购林地；几个月之内，它就成为并且仍然是罗马尼亚最大的私人土地所有者。
The global market’s edacity for timber, perhaps predictably, has gone far beyond the legal limits set up by an already permissive state.
或许可以预见的是，全球市场对木材的需求已经远远超出了本已宽松的国家所设定的法律限制。
According to a 2018 report, initially suppressed by the Romanian government and leaked later that year, the country saw 38.6 million cubic meters of wood exit its forests annually during the preceding four-year period; the government had licensed just 18.5 million cubic meters.
根据 2018 年的一份报告（最初被罗马尼亚政府压制并于当年晚些时候泄露），该国在过去四年内每年有 3860 万立方米的木材离开森林；政府仅许可了 1850 万立方米。
In other words, without even accounting for possible violations based on method of extraction, more than half of the country’s timber is illegally harvested.
换句话说，即使不考虑采伐方法可能存在的违法行为，该国一半以上的木材都是非法采伐的。
Even legal logging, which on private and public land alike must be preceded by a forest management plan that is approved by the government, can be rife with corruption and abuse.
即使是在私人和公共土地上进行合法采伐，也必须先制定经政府批准的森林管理计划，但也可能充斥着腐败和滥用职权。
Since roughly the date of Romania’s accession to the EU, between half and two-thirds of the country’s virgin forest has been lost.
大约从罗马尼亚加入欧盟之日起，该国一半到三分之二的原始森林就已经消失。
As is often the case in trades dominated by illegality, violence is never far behind, and around the time of Ikea’s purchases, a wave of high-profile, logging-related attacks commenced.
正如在以非法为主的行业中经常发生的情况一样，暴力事件也永远不会远去，在宜家收购前后，一波引人注目的、与伐木相关的攻击开始了。
In 2015, Romanian environmentalist Gabriel Paun was beaten unconscious by loggers in an ambush caught on camera; he eventually fled the country and has spent years living in hiding.
2015年，罗马尼亚环保人士加布里埃尔·帕恩(Gabriel Paun)在一场伏击中被伐木者打昏，摄像机拍下了这一幕；他最终逃离了这个国家，并躲藏了多年。
Doina Pana, the former minister of waters and forests, announced that she had been poisoned with mercury in 2017 after attempting to crack down on illegal logging.
前水利和森林部长多伊娜·帕纳 (Doina Pana) 宣布，她在 2017 年试图打击非法采伐后汞中毒。
In late 2019, two forest rangers, Raducu Gorcioaia and Liviu Pop, were murdered in separate attacks in the span of just a handful of weeks.
2019 年底，两名护林员 Raducu Gorcioaia 和 Liviu Pop 在短短几周内分别发生的袭击中被谋杀。
“We spent so many years looking at the Amazon and Indonesia, the Congo basin and Russia, all these places that are just much more famous for really bad stuff happening in the forests,” said David Gehl of the Environmental Investigation Agency , which tracks environmental crime around the world.
“我们花了很多年的时间研究亚马逊、印度尼西亚、刚果盆地和俄罗斯，所有这些地方都因森林中发生的真正糟糕的事情而闻名，”跟踪世界各地环境犯罪的环境调查局的大卫·盖尔说。
When the agency started looking at Romania, Gehl told me, its members were “shocked” to see the same kinds of things happening within the snug confines of the European Union, where international, consumer-facing brands like Ikea prosper.
盖尔告诉我，当该机构开始关注罗马尼亚时，其成员“震惊”地看到在欧盟舒适的范围内发生了同样的事情，而宜家等面向消费者的国际品牌在欧盟蓬勃发展。
With so little formal law enforcement— Romania’s Forest Guard was chartered in 2015 as a 617-person unit that doesn’t work nights or weekends—the task of protecting the forests has often fallen to activists and volunteers, a responsibility that has proved treacherous.
由于正式执法机构如此之少——罗马尼亚森林警卫队于 2015 年成立，拥有 617 名人员，不在夜间或周末工作——保护森林的任务往往落到了活动家和志愿者身上，事实证明这一责任是危险的。
All told, at least six patrolmen have been killed in recent years; in another 650 registered incidents, people have been beaten, shot at, or otherwise attacked in relation to illegal logging.
总而言之，近年来至少有六名巡逻员被杀；在另外 650 起登记的事件中，人们因非法采伐而遭到殴打、枪击或其他攻击。
Neither 2019 case went to trial; Paun’s attackers, caught on film, remain free.
2019 年的案件均未进入审判阶段；帕恩的袭击者被录像捕捉到，但仍然逍遥法外。
“I felt safer in Iraq, in Mosul, in 2016,” said Mircea Barbu, a former foreign correspondent who now works as an investigator for the Romanian environmental NGO Agent Green .
“2016 年，我在伊拉克、摩苏尔感到更安全，”前驻外记者米尔恰·巴尔布 (Mircea Barbu) 说，他现在是罗马尼亚环保非政府组织绿色特工 (Agent Green) 的调查员。
“In Iraq, it’s just a matter of bad luck if they catch you—if you get out of there, they’re not gonna follow you back home.”
“在伊拉克，如果他们抓住你，那只是运气不好——如果你离开那里，他们不会跟着你回家。”
So when I met up with Andrei last September to investigate logging in protected old growth, we knew we would have to take precautions.
因此，当我去年九月与安德烈会面以调查受保护的老树的伐木时，我们知道我们必须采取预防措施。
Identified here by a pseudonym for his protection, Andrei was in the last leg of a 17-day trip that had taken him to the far corners of the country.
为了保护他的安全，安德烈在这里使用了化名，这是他前往该国遥远角落的 17 天旅行的最后一站。
For a report to the European Commission, he was documenting logging that had occurred during the previous 12 months in protected Natura 2000 sites , examining locations where satellites had indicated continued conspicuous forest loss and evidence of habitat degradation.
在向欧盟委员会提交的一份报告中，他记录了过去 12 个月在 Natura 2000 保护区内发生的伐木情况，检查了卫星显示森林持续明显丧失和栖息地退化证据的地点。
He had agreed to let me tag along for the final three days of his trip.
他同意让我跟随他旅行的最后三天。
Thickset like a rugby player, his beard just starting to gray, Andrei looked like someone who’d fare fine in a fight—an impression offset by his jovial demeanor.
安德烈身材粗壮，就像一名橄榄球运动员，胡子刚刚开始变白，看起来像是一个在战斗中表现出色的人——这种印象被他快乐的举止所抵消。
The Natura 2000 program, established by the EU, protects a network of natural areas for their outstanding value as habitats, particularly for animals such as bears, lynx, and birds.
欧盟制定的 Natura 2000 计划旨在保护具有突出栖息地价值的自然区域网络，特别是对熊、山猫和鸟类等动物而言。
The standards apply to privately and publicly owned land alike, and govern Romania by dint of the country’s admission into the EU.
这些标准同样适用于私有和公有土地，并根据罗马尼亚加入欧盟的情况对其进行管理。
Natura 2000 sites play a crucial role in the 2030 EU Biodiversity Strategy , for which there is an actionable legal standard, and are similarly important to the EU’s climate ambitions, for which there is not.
Natura 2000 站点在 2030 年欧盟生物多样性战略中发挥着至关重要的作用，该战略有可操作的法律标准，并且对于欧盟的气候目标也同样重要，但目前还没有。
Old-growth forests absorb 70 percent more carbon than logged and replanted trees, making them the most effective carbon-capture method on the planet; by the time a single beech tree reaches 150 years of age, it will have absorbed nine tons of CO2 , the equivalent of 35,000 miles driven by car, its sequestration rate accelerating as it ages.
古老森林比砍伐和重新种植的树木吸收的碳多 70%，使其成为地球上最有效的碳捕获方法；当一棵山毛榉树树龄达到 150 岁时，它将吸收 9 吨二氧化碳，相当于汽车行驶 35,000 英里，其封存速度随着年龄的增长而加快。
For obvious reasons, Andrei labors under cover.
由于显而易见的原因，安德烈一直在掩护之下。
If anyone asks, he says he’s a tourist in search of nature photos.
如果有人问起，他会说他是一名寻找自然照片的游客。
He works weekends, when logging sites are less likely to be active, so as to avoid run-ins and minimize the chance of getting recognized.
他在周末工作，此时伐木场不太活跃，以避免冲突并最大限度地减少被认出的机会。
He uses a drone to capture much of his footage; hovering at 300 meters, it buzzes out of earshot and is invisible from the ground.
他使用无人机拍摄大部分镜头；它盘旋在 300 米高空，嗡嗡作响，在听不到的地方，从地面上看是看不见的。
It doesn’t hurt that his car is a rental, whose plate number won’t easily be traced to him.
他的车是租来的，这也没什么坏处，车牌号码不容易被追踪到他。
Usually he travels alone, or with a friend.
通常他独自旅行，或与朋友一起旅行。
“For me, it’s quite rare to be out with journalists,” he said.
“对我来说，和记者一起出去是相当罕见的，”他说。
On a dusty highway turnout, we laid out the day’s plan: We would drive into the Southern Fagaras mountains, where we’d try to access a couple of locations that—according to an amalgam of satellite images from Google Earth and lower-res, more frequently updated images from a server called Sentinel Playground—looked to hold recent clear-cuts.
在尘土飞扬的高速公路上，我们制定了当天的计划：我们将开车前往南法加拉斯山脉，在那里我们尝试访问几个地点——根据谷歌地球的卫星图像和来自名为 Sentinel Playground 的服务器的低分辨率、更频繁更新的图像的组合，这些地点似乎拥有最近的明确目标。
I’d follow along in my rented Toyota Corolla as far as it could handle the conditions, then I’d pile into his white Dacia Duster, a small 4x4 SUV common in Romania, and we’d take logging roads the rest of the way.
我会开着我租来的丰田花冠（Toyota Corolla），只要它能适应这些条件，然后我就会钻进他的白色达西亚达斯特（Dacia Duster），这是一辆罗马尼亚常见的小型 4x4 SUV，剩下的路我们会走伐木路。
Provided that the Duster didn’t give out sooner (in the past two weeks, the rear tire had locked up, the hand brake had failed, and the engine was leaking oil), we’d hike the final leg on foot, hoping to get incontrovertible photo and video evidence of the forest’s condition.
如果除尘器没有早点报废（在过去的两周里，后轮胎锁死，手刹失灵，发动机漏油），我们将徒步走完最后一段路，希望能获得关于森林状况的无可争议的照片和视频证据。
Illegal logging comes in various forms.
非法采伐有多种形式。
The most common is cutting in excess of the amount permitted (clear-cuts larger than three hectares, for instance, violate Romanian regulations), but any method that damages waterways, causes erosion, or leaves a mess behind can also run afoul of the law.
最常见的是超过允许的砍伐量（例如，砍伐面积超过三公顷就违反了罗马尼亚法规），但任何破坏水道、造成侵蚀或留下混乱的方法也可能违反法律。
Only a few minutes after I left my car at a forbidding cluster of potholes, we had our first encounter.
就在我把车停在一片令人生畏的坑洼处几分钟后，我们就发生了第一次相遇。
Rounding a bend in the road, we found our path blocked by two trucks, one being disgorged of recently cut logs, the other being loaded up for transit, likely to a depot, from which wood is sold.
绕过道路的一个拐弯处，我们发现我们的道路被两辆卡车挡住了，一辆卡车正在卸下最近砍伐的原木，另一辆正在装载准备运输，可能是运往一个出售木材的仓库。
Large logs were piled along the roadside as well, awaiting export.
路边还堆放着大块原木，等待出口。
“There are still some branches attached,” Andrei pointed out.
“还有一些树枝附着，”安德烈指出。
“It’s illegal to bring them down like this because you’re damaging the soil when you drag them.” Often, silt in the river can be a signal that logging is happening nearby, but the water to our right remained clear, an indication that the timber had likely been brought down from much higher up the mountain.
“像这样把它们拖下来是违法的，因为拖它们的时候会破坏土壤。”通常，河里的淤泥可能表明附近正在伐木，但我们右边的水仍然清澈，这表明木材可能是从山上更高的地方运下来的。
While we waited, Andrei set up his camera, and, keeping it low on the dashboard, took photos of the scene.
在我们等待的时候，安德烈架起了相机，并将其放在仪表板上，拍下了现场的照片。
“Normally, when I take photos, I make sure they don’t see me,” he told me.
“通常，当我拍照时，我会确保他们看不到我，”他告诉我。
“I just want to make sure I’m getting the number plates of these trucks, because we can check them later.”
“我只是想确保我得到了这些卡车的车牌号，因为我们可以稍后检查它们。”
Once the load was cleared, we continued, encountering one more logging outfit before we finally arrived at a dam and ran out of drivable road.
一旦货物被清除，我们继续前进，在我们最终到达一座水坝并跑出了可行驶的道路之前，又遇到了另一支伐木队。
After parking, we hiked up a steep, dirt logging path that had been substantially eroded—also, technically, a legal infraction.
停车后，我们爬上一条陡峭的泥土伐木路，这条路已被严重侵蚀——从技术上讲，这也是一种违法行为。
From the roadside, the area looked densely forested and largely untouched, and within minutes of entering, we saw evidence of its old-growth status: Spruce, beech, and maple of various sizes and ages grew interspersed, their trunks scabby with mosses, lichens, fungi.
从路边看去，该地区森林茂密，基本上未受破坏，进入几分钟后，我们就看到了其古老生长状态的证据：各种大小和年龄的云杉、山毛榉和枫树散布生长，它们的树干上长满了苔藓、地衣和真菌。
The ground was soft with rotting organic matter; wild berry bushes, picked over, suggested bears.
地面松软，充满腐烂的有机物；熊建议，采摘下来的野生浆果丛。
Some of the bigger trees reached well beyond 100 feet tall; numerous behemoths were easily 300 years old.
一些较大的树高达 100 英尺以上；许多庞然大物的年龄都已经有300岁了。
The diversity of age, type, and density proved that this region had never been substantially logged or replanted.
年龄、类型和密度的多样性证明该地区从未被大规模砍伐或重新种植。
Even to an amateur, the difference between this forest and the closely packed, uniform grove visible on an opposite peak, a replanted patch of trees of identical age and size, was obvious.
即使对于业余爱好者来说，这片森林与对面山峰上可见的密集、均匀的小树林（一块重新种植的年龄和大小相同的树木）之间的差异也是显而易见的。
We climbed farther still, until we arrived at a clearing from which we could launch the drone.
我们继续爬得更远，直到到达一块空地，我们可以从那里发射无人机。
Once airborne, the camera delivered a stark revelation.
一旦升空，摄像机就呈现出赤裸裸的真相。
The thicket we were hiking through was flanked by commercial logging on all sides.
我们徒步穿越的灌木丛两侧都是商业伐木区。
As the drone panned, bald patches revealed themselves on the monitor: new clear-cuts.
当无人机平移时，监视器上显露出了光秃秃的斑块：新的清晰切口。
The spots metastasized across the mountaintop.
这些斑点转移到了山顶。
Elsewhere, we saw what looked like claw marks, the gashes where trees had been pulled down the mountain by cable.
在其他地方，我们看到了看起来像爪痕的东西，树木被电缆从山上拉下来的伤口。
In many places, what remained was just brown dirt; the cuts were new enough that not even grass or weeds had had time to grow.
在许多地方，只剩下棕色的泥土；伤口很新，连青草或杂草都没有时间生长。
The sight of newly built roads indicated that more logging would soon start.
新建道路的景象表明更多的伐木活动即将开始。
Meanwhile, in the clusters that remained untouched, wind had begun toppling and uprooting the exposed trees.
与此同时，在未受影响的集群中，风开始将裸露的树木倒塌并连根拔起。
“This is one of the worst,” Andrei said when I asked how the area compared to what he’d seen so far in his survey.
“这是最糟糕的地区之一，”当我询问该地区与他迄今为止在调查中看到的情况相比如何时，安德烈说道。
“It’s very rare to see so many clear-cuts.” Between wind damage, erosion, and bark beetles, he estimated, there would soon be “nothing left.” We brought the drone down, hiked to a second spot, and launched it again.
“看到如此多的明确界限是非常罕见的。”他估计，除了风害、侵蚀和树皮甲虫之外，很快就会“什么都没有剩下”。我们把无人机降下来，徒步到第二个地点，然后再次发射它。
The work was methodical: Log the footage, mark the location on the map.
这项工作是有条不紊的：记录镜头，在地图上标记位置。
When the battery ran low, we began our descent to the car.
当电池电量耗尽时，我们开始下降到车上。
As proof that they’re following the law, truckers are required to upload photographs of their loads to an online database called SUMAL , which maintains active logging permits.
为了证明他们遵守法律，卡车司机必须将其货物的照片上传到名为 SUMAL 的在线数据库，该数据库维护有效的伐木许可证。
But there are work-arounds.
但也有解决方法。
Sometimes, the truckers won’t submit until they’re apprehended by authorities, at which point they’ll offer the documentation and claim they’d been out of cell service range.
有时，卡车司机在被当局逮捕之前不会提交，此时他们会提供文件并声称他们已超出手机服务范围。
Other times, they’ll put water on the camera lens or photograph only half of their haul.
其他时候，他们会把水倒在相机镜头上，或者只拍摄一半的收获。
Though illegal transports in broad daylight are uncommon, Andrei and I looked up the plate numbers we’d seen.
尽管光天化日之下的非法运输并不常见，安德烈和我查阅了我们看到的车牌号码。
Most checked out as expected.
大多数都按预期签出。
But one of the drivers, who had submitted a photo with only half the load in the frame, claimed to be carrying just seven cubic meters of wood, a quarter of what the other trucks of that size reported.
但其中一名司机提交了一张照片，照片中只有一半的负载，他声称只携带了七立方米的木材，是其他同等尺寸卡车报告的四分之一。
Unfortunately, the wood had long since been dropped off at a depot, mixed up with legal logs, possibly even sold to a mill.
不幸的是，这些木材早已被送到仓库，与合法原木混合在一起，甚至可能卖给了一家工厂。
It was too late to do anything.
一切都太迟了。
In early 2020, the European Commission announced infringement proceedings against Romania for allowing logging without an environmental assessment in Natura 2000 zones.
2020 年初，欧盟委员会宣布对罗马尼亚提起侵权诉讼，因为罗马尼亚允许在 Natura 2000 地区未经环境评估的情况下进行伐木。
A few months later, the commission escalated the case by issuing a “reasoned opinion,” the last step before hauling the country before the European Court of Justice.
几个月后，该委员会发布了“合理意见”，使案件升级，这是将该国提交欧洲法院之前的最后一步。
Despite deliberating over national legislation that would conform to EU standards, the Romanian government has as yet implemented little besides upping criminal penalties for wood theft.
尽管罗马尼亚政府正在审议符合欧盟标准的国家立法，但除了提高对木材盗窃的刑事处罚外，罗马尼亚政府尚未采取任何措施。
One might think the infringement proceeding would slow deforestation; if anything, the opposite has been true.
人们可能认为侵权诉讼会减缓森林砍伐；但事实并非如此。如果说有什么不同的话，那就是事实恰恰相反。
The threat of new legislation that would protect both privately and publicly owned old-growth forests has sparked a race to extract timber from those areas as quickly as possible.
保护私人和公有原始森林的新立法的威胁引发了一场尽快从这些地区开采木材的竞赛。
In 2018, an infringement hearing from the commission shut down all logging in Poland’s Bialowieza forest, also an old-growth Natura 2000 site, after evidence emerged of logging 100-year-old trees .
2018 年，在有证据显示有砍伐 100 年树龄树木的证据出现后，该委员会举行的一次侵权听证会关闭了波兰 Bialowieza 森林的所有砍伐活动，该森林也是一个古老的 Natura 2000 场地。
“Obviously, there is now increased pressure,” Andrei told me.
“显然，现在压力越来越大，”安德烈告诉我。
“If you want to remove large volumes of wood without being asked questions, you do it now.
“如果你想在不被询问的情况下移除大量木材，你现在就可以这样做。
If you wait until next year, you might not be able to do it.” Logging in a given area can degrade the surrounding forest enough to make it ineligible for protection, and this adds further motivation.
如果等到明年，可能就做不到了。”在特定区域进行伐木可能会使周围的森林退化，使其失去保护资格，这进一步增加了动机。
We were setting out that morning from a guesthouse in Curtea de Arges, a town so big and so far from the forest that no one would be suspicious of our presence.
那天早上，我们从阿尔杰斯库尔泰亚的一家宾馆出发，这座小镇很大，距离森林又很远，没有人会怀疑我们的存在。
At breakfast, Andrei uploaded the previous day’s drone footage.
早餐时，安德烈上传了前一天的无人机镜头。
We needed to visit numerous sites, this time in the area of Vidraru Dam, in order to keep on schedule.
为了按计划进行，我们需要参观许多地点，这次是在维德拉鲁大坝地区。
Again we drove until my rental car couldn’t traverse the potholes.
我们再次开车，直到我租来的车无法穿过坑洼为止。
Again we were confronted by evidence of logging immediately thereafter—this time, the plangent hum of chain saws.
此后我们再次看到了伐木的证据——这一次是链锯刺耳的嗡嗡声。
A few minutes later, we ran into a forester who, upon hearing that we were tourists, recommended a scenic spot for picture-taking.
几分钟后，我们遇到了一位林务员，听说我们是游客，就推荐了一个适合拍照的景点。
By way of assurance, Andrei reminded me that it was Saturday, and most of the loggers would be done working by 1 p.m.
为了保证安全，Andrei 提醒我今天是星期六，大多数伐木工人会在下午 1 点之前结束工作。
In just a few hours, we would have nothing to worry about.
只要几个小时，我们就没有什么可担心的了。
We drove until we found a logging road that looked like it would deliver us to a site we’d reviewed on satellite that morning.
我们一直开着车，直到找到一条伐木路，看起来可以把我们带到那天早上我们在卫星上查看过的地点。
The road was already heavily eroded, with channels deeper than I was tall.
道路已经被严重侵蚀，沟渠比我的身高还要深。
Driving was impossible, so we hiked.
开车是不可能的，所以我们徒步旅行。
Right away, Andrei told me that this appeared to be an even rarer virgin forest; some of its trees he estimated at 500 years old, striking enough in stature for him to stop and take photos for his own camera roll.
安德烈立即告诉我，这似乎是一片更加罕见的原始森林；他估计其中一些树木已有 500 年的历史，其高大足以让他停下来为自己的相机胶卷拍照。
Traversable roads can be more difficult to find than the logging sites themselves, which became painfully obvious as our path continued to bend away from our destination.
可通行的道路可能比伐木场本身更难找到，随着我们的道路继续偏离目的地，这一点变得非常明显。
Soon enough, we were scaling and descending a series of steep ravines, futilely checking the GPS tracker; our destination was only a couple of hundred meters away, but it seemed unreachable.
很快，我们就攀爬并下降了一系列陡峭的峡谷，徒劳地检查 GPS 跟踪器；我们的目的地虽然只有几百米，但似乎遥不可及。
The dense forest cover kept the air cool but humid, and I was soaked through with sweat.
茂密的森林使空气凉爽而湿润，我浑身都是汗。
When we finally hit a ridge line, the clear-cut was nowhere to be found.
当我们最终到达山脊线时，却找不到清晰的道路。
It’s possible, Andrei conceded, that the satellite was just showing wind damage.
安德烈承认，卫星有可能只是显示出风损坏的情况。
But when he launched the drone, he spotted it below us, a hasty job that had left behind not just old-growth stumps but many of the logs themselves.
但当他发射无人机时，他发现它就在我们下面，这是一项仓促的工作，不仅留下了古老的树桩，还留下了许多原木本身。
Dead, graying wood covered the soil such that nothing, not even weeds, was growing back.
枯死的、灰白的木头覆盖了土壤，以至于没有任何东西，甚至杂草，都没有再长出来。
Andrei filmed a short video, and we began our hike back down the mountain.
安德烈拍摄了一段短片，然后我们开始徒步下山。
We spent the rest of the afternoon like this—launching the drone, getting footage, traipsing around on foot.
我们就这样度过了下午剩下的时间——发射无人机，拍摄镜头，徒步闲逛。
Once the mid-September sun started dipping, we set off for our last location, in the direction the forester had recommended, and from where we’d heard the chain saws upon arrival.
九月中旬，太阳开始下沉，我们就按照护林员推荐的方向出发，前往最后一个地点，我们到达时就从那里听到了链锯的声音。
Passing a shepherd’s hut, we began climbing roads of deteriorating quality, the car bottoming out not infrequently on potholes, rocks, and debris.
经过牧羊人的小屋，我们开始爬上质量越来越差的道路，汽车经常在坑洼、岩石和碎片上触底。
After a time, we found something we didn’t expect: a placard announcing logging in the area.
一段时间后，我们发现了一些意想不到的东西：一块宣布在该地区伐木的标语牌。
The permit, we read, had expired nearly two months before, on July 30.
我们读到，该许可证已于近两个月前（即 7 月 30 日）到期。
“Try to get a photo of that panel,” Andrei instructed me.
“尝试拍一张该面板的照片，”安德烈指示我。
“I already don’t like this.”
“我已经不喜欢这个了。”
We stopped the car, and I got out to remove a branch that was blocking the road.
我们停下车，我下车去清除挡住道路的树枝。
Andrei pointed out deep, apparently recent tractor tracks in the mud.
安德烈指着泥里很深的、显然是新近出现的拖拉机痕迹。
A few minutes later, we stopped again so I could cast aside another bough blocking our way.
几分钟后，我们又停下来，这样我就可以把挡路的另一根树枝拨开。
Andrei told me to do it quietly; it was possible these impediments were left to signal to loggers up ahead that someone was coming.
安德烈告诉我要安静地做。这些障碍物可能是为了向前方的伐木者发出有人来了的信号。
We inched up the road until finally we saw logs, big and freshly cut.
我们慢慢地沿着路走，直到最后我们看到了大而刚砍伐的原木。
They had been brought down with branches still attached, an infraction far less significant than the fact that this site was both protected and weeks off-permit.
它们被推倒时，树枝还连着，这一违规行为远没有这个地点受到保护且数周不获许可的事实严重。
Then we saw smoke.
然后我们看到了烟雾。
Farther up the road, just past the logs we were surveying, it plumed from the chimney of a matchbox-size logger’s trailer.
在路的更远的地方，就在我们正在勘察的原木旁边，它从火柴盒大小的伐木拖车的烟囱里冒出来。
“Ah fuck,” Andrei said.
“啊操，”安德烈说。
“Let’s grab a photo of this and then slowly head back.” Quietly, we turned the car around, and began making our way back down the mountain, trying to keep the engine noise minimal.
“我们拍张照片然后慢慢回去吧。”我们悄悄地调转车头，开始下山，尽量将发动机的噪音降到最低。
Once we had retreated far enough to be out of sight, Andrei parked the car and launched the drone.
当我们退到看不见的地方后，安德烈停好车并发射了无人机。
Tracing a barren seam up the mountain, he recorded video of the clearly active logging site, which hadn’t even been on his radar; the site we were targeting was still kilometers away.
他沿着山上的一条荒芜的煤层，录制了明显活跃的伐木场的视频，而这个伐木场甚至没有出现在他的雷达上；我们的目标地点距离我们还有几公里。
I stood watch to make sure we weren’t being pursued.
我站岗以确保我们没有被追赶。
“Do you have any phone signal here?” he asked.
“你们这里有电话信号吗？”他问道。
I didn’t.
我没有。
“Good.
” “好。
That means even if the loggers hear us, they can’t call anyone.” And then, less encouraging: “We are a bit exposed here.”
这意味着即使伐木者听到我们的声音，他们也无法给任何人打电话。”然后，不那么令人鼓舞的是：“我们在这里有点暴露。”
At that moment, I saw someone approaching quickly on foot.
就在这时，我看到有人快步走来。
“There’s someone coming,” I blurted.
“有人来了。”我脱口而出。
He was too close for us to get the drone down and escape.
他离我们太近了，我们无法放下无人机并逃跑。
Andrei handed me the controls and dove into the driver’s seat, jamming the key in the ignition and raking the gearshift into drive.
安德烈把控制装置递给我，然后钻进驾驶座，将钥匙插入点火开关，将变速杆拉入驱动档。
If I flew the drone to a location ahead, he said, we could put some distance between us and our pursuer and have a chance to grab the device.
他说，如果我将无人机飞到前方的位置，我们就可以和追踪者保持一定的距离，从而有机会抓住设备。
The car beeped objections as we thrashed over potholes, and I tried to keep the drone on course overhead.
当我们在坑坑洼洼的路面上行驶时，汽车发出了嘟嘟声，我试图让无人机保持在头顶上的航向。
After a few minutes, the logger was out of sight, and Andrei parked the car.
几分钟后，记录仪就看不见了，安德烈把车停了下来。
At his request, I fastidiously monitored the road behind.
按照他的要求，我小心翼翼地监视着后面的路。
“I will be done in like 10 seconds,” he assured me.
“我会在 10 秒内完成，”他向我保证。
Not long after, I saw the logger again, closing in on us.
不久之后，我又看到了伐木机，正向我们逼近。
“He’s coming, he’s coming,” I said.
“他来了，他来了。”我说。
Andrei scrambled back into the car, and we set off again.
安德烈爬回车里，我们又出发了。
Anyone driving inbound would have us blocked in; any trouble with the Duster would have left us marooned.
任何开车入境的人都会把我们挡在里面；除尘器的任何问题都会让我们陷入困境。
I kept watch in the rear windshield, but we didn’t see anyone else; no one approached from ahead.
我在后挡风玻璃上观察，但没有看到其他人；没有人从前面靠近。
Tracing any individual tree from forest floor to showroom presents a near impossible challenge.
追踪从森林地面到陈列室的任何一棵树几乎是不可能的挑战。
As wood moves through the supply chain, it becomes increasingly difficult to pin down.
随着木材在供应链中的流动，它变得越来越难以确定。
Owners of a forest auction off its trees to be cut by a logging company, after which the wood is taken to a depot, sold to a mill that processes it into lumber, wood chips, or particleboard, then sold again to a manufacturer, which makes it into a chair, or the pieces of a chair, on behalf of furniture companies such as Ikea, which buy it, brand it, ship it, and sell it for at-home installation.
森林所有者拍卖树木，由伐木公司砍伐，然后将木材运至仓库，出售给工厂，将其加工成木材、木片或刨花板，然后再次出售给制造商，制造商代表宜家等家具公司将其制成椅子或椅子碎片，由宜家等家具公司购买、贴牌、运输，然后出售用于家庭安装。
Every link in that chain makes the wood’s point of origin fuzzier.
该链条中的每个环节都使木材的原产地变得更加模糊。
Depots in particular are notorious for stacking illegal and legal logs together behind fencing or inside warehouses, where they become indistinguishable.
仓库尤其因将非法和合法原木堆放在栅栏后面或仓库内而臭名昭著，在那里它们变得难以区分。
If the tracing problem makes it almost impossible to prove that any given log is illegal, it can make it equally difficult to prove that any particular log is legal.
如果跟踪问题几乎不可能证明任何给定的日志是非法的，那么证明任何特定日志的合法性也同样困难。
Dubious logging that never quite rises to the level of illegality can be just as bad as the formally illegal, and the two often trend toward each other.
从未完全上升到非法程度的可疑伐木可能与正式非法伐木一样糟糕，而且两者往往趋向于相辅相成。
Plenty of wood, like the misreported truckload I saw on my first day, would be deemed illegal if only there were the resources to review it.
大量的木材，就像我第一天看到的误报的卡车装载量一样，只要有资源进行审查，就会被视为非法。
Though it’s known that more than half of the country’s timber, on average, is extracted without permission, only 1 percent of that illegal wood gets officially tallied.
尽管众所周知，该国平均一半以上的木材是未经许可开采的，但只有 1% 的非法木材得到了官方统计。
That reality is critical for the furniture industry, which is forecast to grow from $564 billion in 2020 to $850 billion by 2025.
这一现实对于家具行业至关重要，预计家具行业将从 2020 年的 5,640 亿美元增长到 2025 年的 8,500 亿美元。
It’s especially important for Ikea, which is not only the largest furniture company in the world, but the largest buyer and retailer of wood.
这对于宜家来说尤其重要，宜家不仅是世界上最大的家具公司，而且是最大的木材买家和零售商。
Having doubled its consumption in the last 10 years, it now devours 1 percent of the world’s timber annually , with a particular regional reliance on Romania and its surrounds.
其消费量在过去 10 年中翻了一番，现在每年消耗世界木材的 1%，特别是对罗马尼亚及其周边地区的区域依赖。
“Ikea’s growth goes really hand in glove with the forestry sector in Eastern Europe and Russia,” said Tara Ganesh, head of timber investigations at the U.K.-based NGO Earthsight .
“宜家的发展与东欧和俄罗斯的林业部门密切相关，”英国非政府组织 Earthsight 木材调查负责人塔拉·加内什 (Tara Ganesh) 表示。
Ganesh has worked on multiple investigations of the company, whose presence in the region, she said, is “massive.”
加内什对该公司进行了多项调查，她说该公司在该地区的业务“规模很大”。
The insatiable demand for trees means there’s almost no way the company would have the bandwidth to do what foreign governments can’t even manage and trace all the wood flowing in and out of its maw.
对树木永不满足的需求意味着该公司几乎没有足够的带宽来做外国政府甚至无法管理和追踪所有进出其胃的木材的事情。
When the 2018 report, which indicated that more than half of the country’s timber was illegally harvested, was leaked, Ikea dodged.
当 2018 年的报告显示该国一半以上的木材被非法采伐时，宜家躲开了。
“All the big companies came out and said: It’s not our fault.
“所有大公司都站出来表示：这不是我们的错。
We get the legal stuff.
我们得到合法的东西。
All those Romanians, burning firewood, and that’s where the illegal stuff is going,” said Gehl of the EIA.
所有这些罗马尼亚人都在燃烧木柴，这就是非法物品的去向，”环境影响评估局的盖尔说。
That 55 percent of the country’s timber is feeding the fireplaces of a population that shrank over that same period and has decreased by four million since 1990, is, of course, an inconceivable suggestion.
该国 55% 的木材用于为同期减少的人口提供壁炉，自 1990 年以来减少了 400 万，这当然是一个不可思议的建议。
Ikea, meanwhile, sports a sterling reputation for its environmental bona fides.
与此同时，宜家因其环保诚意而享有盛誉。
According to the company’s website, more than 98 percent of its timber is sustainably harvested, meaning recycled or certified by the Forest Stewardship Council ; it intends to reach 100 percent imminently.
根据该公司的网站，其 98% 以上的木材都是可持续采伐的，这意味着经过森林管理委员会的回收或认证；它打算立即达到 100%。
“Under no circumstances do we allow irresponsible forestry practices,” a spokesperson told me.
“在任何情况下，我们都不允许不负责任的林业行为，”一位发言人告诉我。
And yet at least 60 percent of its wood supply comes from Eastern Europe and Russia, around 10 percent from Romania in particular.
然而，至少 60% 的木材供应来自东欧和俄罗斯，尤其是罗马尼亚约 10%。
How can Ikea’s claims be reconciled with its outsize presence in a scandal-plagued region?
宜家的说法如何与其在丑闻缠身的地区的庞大存在相协调？
The company’s reliance on FSC certification as a working synonym for sustainability helps explain.
该公司依赖 FSC 认证作为可持续发展的同义词，这有助于解释这一点。
A small international NGO, the FSC sets a standard based on its 10 principles—for example, compliance with national laws, a commitment to enhancing the well-being of workers, an updated forest management plan—that is then conferred upon forestry operations by smaller, independent auditors, who are contracted by the logging and manufacturing companies to perform preannounced, scheduled reviews.
FSC 是一个小型国际非政府组织，根据其 10 项原则制定了标准，例如遵守国家法律、致力于提高工人福祉、更新森林管理计划，然后由伐木和制造公司签约的小型独立审计员向林业作业授予该标准，以执行预先宣布的定期审查。
If those groups refuse to grant certification, logging operations can simply shop around until they find an auditor willing to take the check and confer the stamp.
如果这些团体拒绝授予认证，伐木作业可以简单地货比三家，直到找到愿意接受检查并授予印章的审核员。
Perhaps it goes without saying that such a system initiates a race to the bottom.
也许不言而喻，这样的系统会引发逐底竞争。
Ever since the FSC came into being in 1993, it has provoked criticism among environmentalists; in 2018, Greenpeace called the organization “a tool for forestry and timber extraction.” It doesn’t help that Ikea is the largest wood consumer in the FSC network and was a founding member of the council.
FSC自1993年成立以来，就饱受环保人士的批评。 2018 年，绿色和平组织将该组织称为“林业和木材开采的工具”。宜家是 FSC 网络中最大的木材消费者，并且是该委员会的创始成员，这也无济于事。
(Ikea “is only one of 1000+ members,” a spokesperson for FSC wrote me.
（宜家“只是 1000 多名会员之一”，FSC 发言人写信给我。
“Our global standards are discussed and agreed by our members globally.”)
“我们的全球标准是由我们的全球成员讨论并同意的。”）
Similar problems appear up and down the supply chain.
类似的问题也出现在供应链的上下游。
Ikea contracts with manufacturers, which have to acquire enough wood to make into furniture parts to fulfill their contracts.
宜家与制造商签订合同，制造商必须获得足够的木材来制造家具零件才能履行合同。
The manufacturers solicit sawmills, which have to come up with enough wood to supply the factories.
制造商向锯木厂招揽，锯木厂必须提供足够的木材来供应工厂。
“Once they make that commitment, they then have to find the wood for Ikea by hook or crook,” Ganesh said.
“一旦他们做出了承诺，他们就必须不择手段地为宜家寻找木材，”加内什说。
“That can often result in them cutting corners on the environment or legality.”
“这往往会导致他们在环境或合法性方面偷工减料。”
When someone in the chain gets busted for using illicit or unsustainable sourcing—say, if a factory that makes folding chairs for Ikea is popped for sourcing timber from a legally protected forest in Poland—Ikea can simply distance itself and claim ignorance, a staple of subcontracting in any industry.
当供应链中的某个人因使用非法或不可持续的采购而被捕时——例如，如果一家为宜家生产折叠椅的工厂因从波兰受法律保护的森林采购木材而被揭发——宜家可以简单地与自己保持距离并声称自己不知情，这是任何行业分包的主要做法。
The strategy makes for suitable PR, but it collapses under the slightest scrutiny.
这种策略可以带来合适的公关，但稍加审查就会崩溃。
These contracted firms, at least in Romania, often sport the signature yellow and blue colors or work exclusively with the company; some even fly the Swedish flag.
这些签约公司，至少在罗马尼亚，通常采用标志性的黄色和蓝色，或者专门与该公司合作；有些甚至悬挂瑞典国旗。
In 2020, the Romanian factory Plimob was caught out for using illegal timber in its chairs ; it sports the blue and gold on its gate, visible even on Google street view.
2020年，罗马尼亚工厂Plimob因在其椅子中使用非法木材而被抓获；它的大门上有蓝色和金色，即使在谷歌街景中也能看到。
Plimob sells 98 percent of its goods to Ikea.
Plimob 98% 的商品销往宜家。
One investigation by Earthsight, the U.K. organization, found that illegal beechwood from Ukraine, harvested by the wood processing firm VGSM, was being used in the production of Ikea chairs manufactured by Plimob as well as shipped to Ikea directly.
英国组织 Earthsight 的一项调查发现，木材加工公司 VGSM 采伐的来自乌克兰的非法山毛榉木被用于生产 Plimob 制造的宜家椅子，并直接运往宜家。
Together, Plimob and Ikea received 96 percent of VGSM’s beech, accepting shipments nearly every month between 2018 and 2020.
Plimob 和宜家总共接收了 96% 的 VGSM 山毛榉木，在 2018 年至 2020 年间几乎每个月都接收货物。
Egger, another Romanian supplier of Ikea, has also gotten busted for importing illegal timber.
宜家的另一家罗马尼亚供应商艾格也因进口非法木材而被捕。
An investigation found that the company’s children’s furniture line, Sundvik, was made with illegal pine from Siberian Russia.
调查发现，该公司的儿童家具系列 Sundvik 是用来自俄罗斯西伯利亚的非法松木制成的。
An Al Jazeera crew in Romania followed a truck full of illegal timber to a log yard that supplies Kronospan, an Ikea supplier that makes huge volumes of chipboard, a key element of Ikea furniture.
罗马尼亚半岛电视台的一名工作人员跟踪一辆装满非法木材的卡车，来到一个为 Kronospan 供应木材的木材场。Kronospan 是宜家的供应商，生产大量刨花板，而刨花板是宜家家具的关键部件。
All these firms—VGSM, Plimob, Egger, and Kronospan—are FSC-certified.
所有这些公司——VGSM、Plimob、Egger 和 Kronospan——均获得了 FSC 认证。
In one infamous 2015 case, FSC-certified HS Timber (then called Schweighofer), Romania’s foremost spruce processor, was caught on hidden camera pledging not only to buy illegal timber, but to pay a bonus for it.
在 2015 年的一起臭名昭著的案件中，罗马尼亚最重要的云杉加工商、获得 FSC 认证的 HS Timber（当时称为 Schweighofer）被隐藏摄像头拍到，该公司不仅承诺购买非法木材，而且还为此支付奖金。
In 2016, FSC provisionally suspended the firm’s certification, then severed ties a year later; Ikea waited until the council’s final decision to disassociate itself.
2016年，FSC暂时中止了该公司的认证，一年后又切断了合作关系；宜家一直等到理事会做出最终决定才退出。
It might be easier for Ikea to patrol its intake if it used its own wood, but it claims that little of the forests it owns in Romania end up in its furniture production.
如果宜家使用自己的木材，那么它可能会更容易巡逻其入口，但它声称它在罗马尼亚拥有的森林很少最终用于其家具生产。
Rather, the company has been selling logging concessions to companies ostensibly harvesting firewood, a separate enterprise entirely.
相反，该公司一直在向表面上采伐木柴的公司出售伐木特许权，这是一家完全独立的企业。
But those holdings, too, hover in the interstice between legal and illegal.
但这些资产也徘徊在合法与非法之间。
Ikea bought its land from an unlikely source: the Harvard University endowment, which snatched up Romanian property after a post-communist land restitution law left an antic privatization system in its wake, handing over half of the country’s public forestland to private interests.
宜家从一个不太可能的来源购买了土地：哈佛大学捐赠基金，在后共产主义土地归还法留下了一个反常的私有化制度后，哈佛大学捐赠基金抢走了罗马尼亚的财产，将该国一半的公共林地移交给了私人利益集团。
Starting in 2004, the university, using various shells and nonprofit formations, began buying big with the help of a Romanian businessman, Dragos Lipan.
从 2004 年开始，该大学利用各种空壳和非营利组织，在罗马尼亚商人德拉戈斯·利潘 (Dragos Lipan) 的帮助下开始进行大笔收购。
A number of these holdings were fire sales of dubious restitution claims, and Harvard soon found itself in legal hot water.
其中许多资产因可疑的归还要求而被贱卖，哈佛很快发现自己陷入了法律困境。
By 2015, Lipan had received a three-year suspended sentence for bribery and money laundering related to those deals, and Harvard was in court fighting for the legitimacy of its claims.
到 2015 年，Lipan 因与这些交易相关的贿赂和洗钱罪被判处三年缓刑，哈佛大学在法庭上为其主张的合法性辩护。
The same year, the university, ready to wash its hands of the deal, found a willing buyer in Ikea.
同年，该大学准备放弃这笔交易，并在宜家找到了愿意的买家。
With an investment arm, the company purchased almost 34,000 hectares from Harvard.
该公司通过投资部门从哈佛大学购买了近 34,000 公顷土地。
In 2016, it added another 12,800 hectares to its haul, bringing its holdings to 46,700 hectares in total .
2016年，该公司又增加了12,800公顷的种植面积，使其总面积达到46,700公顷。
Today, the largest owner and operator of Ikea retail stores, Ingka Investments, has an estimated 50,000 hectares in its portfolio.
如今，宜家零售店最大的所有者和运营商 Ingka Investments 的投资组合面积估计为 50,000 公顷。
As the holdings have changed hands, the stain of illegality has grown fainter and fainter.
随着资产的易手，非法行为的污点变得越来越淡。
The company faces no serious risk of losing those holdings in court.
该公司并不面临在法庭上失去这些股份的严重风险。
Ikea’s forests, too, are FSC-certified; those forests, too, have been sites of abuse.
宜家的森林也获得了 FSC 认证；这些森林也曾是虐待场所。
Not long before I arrived in Romania, a BBC crew found clear-cutting—not necessarily illegal but certainly not environmentally sound—in an Ikea forest in the northern province of Maramures.
在我抵达罗马尼亚不久之前，英国广播公司 (BBC) 的工作人员在北部马拉穆列什省的一片宜家森林中发现了砍伐行为，这不一定是非法的，但肯定不利于环境。
And despite having formally dissociated itself from HS Timber, Ikea was found to be selling concessions to that company to log its own forests as well.
尽管宜家已正式与 HS Timber 脱离关系，但仍被发现向该公司出售特许权，以砍伐自己的森林。
I knew I had to see an Ikea-owned forest for myself; the challenge was finding one to safely visit.
我知道我必须亲眼看看宜家拥有的森林；挑战在于找到一个可以安全访问的地方。
Any of the company’s vast holdings in Suceava seemed unwise after the attack; in neighboring Maramures county, where the forest ranger Pop had been murdered not two years prior, I was guaranteed to see clear-cutting, but it remained too dangerous on a workday.
袭击发生后，该公司在苏恰瓦持有的任何大量股份似乎都是不明智的。在邻近的马拉穆列什县，护林员波普不到两年前就被谋杀了，我保证能看到砍伐的景象，但在工作日仍然太危险了。
I resolved, finally, to go to Focsani, near a lower-elevation forest where Ikea owns some 5,000 hectares, in a region where the company has also run into its greatest legal trouble.
最后，我决定去福克萨尼，那里靠近一片海拔较低的森林，宜家在该森林中拥有约 5,000 公顷的土地，该公司在该地区也遇到了最大的法律麻烦。
Barbu, the investigator, agreed to join me, as did Andrei, as part of his own research.
调查员巴尔布同意加入我，安德烈也同意，作为他自己研究的一部分。
Just a handful of months ago, Agent Green, the Romanian NGO, identified what it said was clear-cutting without a permit and without an environmental impact assessment in an Ikea-owned old-growth forest there, adjacent to the Valea Neagra Natura 2000 site, which held trees of 130 to 150 years old.
就在几个月前，罗马尼亚非政府组织 Agent Green 在宜家拥有的一片古老森林中发现了所谓的未经许可、未经环境影响评估的砍伐行为，该森林毗邻 Valea Neagra Natura 2000 场地，那里生长着 130 至 150 年树龄的树木。
I’d seen the photos of the Martian aftermath.
我看过火星灾难后的照片。
The group had filed a complaint; the results had recently arrived.
该团体已提出投诉；结果最近已经出来了。
On the drive in, we reviewed the auditor’s findings, compiled by Britain’s Soil Association, an FSC certifier.
在开车的路上，我们审查了由 FSC 认证机构英国土壤协会编制的审计结果。
Despite the photographic evidence and the lack of an environmental impact assessment, the review found the company faultless.
尽管有照片证据且缺乏环境影响评估，审查仍认为该公司没有过错。
Andrei read aloud in disbelief.
安德烈难以置信地大声朗读。
“They started logging here two years ago, and they still don’t have the permit.
“他们两年前开始在这里伐木，但仍然没有许可证。
OK.
好的。
And FSC doesn’t have a problem with that, doesn’t mention that they’re breaking the law.
FSC 对此没有异议，也没有提及他们违反了法律。
They’re just saying that they made ‘efforts’ to comply with the legislation.”
他们只是说他们为遵守立法做出了‘努力’。”
We drove through hills scarred not just with logging but with landslides.
我们开车穿过的山丘不仅因伐木而伤痕累累，而且还因山体滑坡而伤痕累累。
The soil here is thick with clay, which slides when its vegetation is removed, making future logging more difficult and regeneration of any sort harder still, a “nasty surprise” for Ikea’s designs on the area.
这里的土壤富含粘土，当植被被移除时，粘土会滑动，使得未来的伐木更加困难，任何形式的再生都更加困难，这对于宜家在该地区的设计来说是一个“令人讨厌的惊喜”。
Andrei laughed darkly.
安德烈阴沉地笑道。
“They didn’t do their homework.”
“他们没有做功课。”
When we arrived at the site, it was greener than I expected.
当我们到达现场时，它比我想象的还要绿。
Weeds and brush had broken up the most barren parts of the plot.
杂草和灌木丛已经破坏了这片土地上最贫瘠的部分。
A solitary surviving tree loomed.
一棵孤零零的幸存树若隐若现。
We counted a handful of oak saplings, none taller than shin-high.
我们数了数几棵橡树树苗，没有一棵比小腿高。
The most impressive growth came in the form of a tomato plant that had begun fruiting, likely a vestige of a logger’s lunch.
最令人印象深刻的生长是一株已经开始结果的番茄植株，很可能是伐木者午餐的痕迹。
Because of the complaint, there had been plenty of public attention to the area, which, I was told, meant the site would be dormant.
由于投诉，该地区引起了公众的广泛关注，我被告知，这意味着该地点将处于休眠状态。
But as we walked around, we heard the distant, familiar warble of chain saws.
但当我们四处走动时，我们听到远处传来熟悉的链锯的鸣叫声。
More alarmingly, when the saws ceased, we heard the thump of trees meeting the forest floor, harder evidence of active logging somewhere nearby.
更令人震惊的是，当锯子停止时，我们听到树木撞击森林地面的重击声，这是附近某处正在积极伐木的更有力证据。
Andrei launched the drone and spotted the operation just across the road from where we’d parked.
安德烈（Andrei）发射了无人机，并在我们停车的地方的马路对面发现了这次行动。
“No fucking way,” Barbu said.
“他妈的没办法，”巴布说。
“A lot of journalists have been covering this, and they have been coming to the area, so I think it would be foolish to, like, try something totally illegal.”
“很多记者一直在报道此事，他们也来到了该地区，所以我认为尝试一些完全非法的事情是愚蠢的。”
We walked around until we found phone service, and ran our coordinates through SUMAL, the online database, for active logging permits.
我们四处走动，直到找到电话服务，并通过在线数据库 SUMAL 运行我们的坐标，以获得活动伐木许可。
One permit surfaced: for rarituri —the Romanian word for “thinning”—issued to Ingka Investments, Ikea’s retail ownership arm.
一份许可证浮出水面：为 rarituri（罗马尼亚语中“稀疏”的意思）颁发给宜家零售所有权部门 Ingka Investments。
The permit would allow loggers to remove small saplings, growth that might impede the overall well-being of the forest, as well as sick or dead trees.
该许可证将允许伐木者砍伐小树苗、可能妨碍森林整体健康的生长物以及病树或死树。
But even from hundreds of feet above ground, we could tell that that was not what was coming out.
但即使是在距地面数百英尺的地方，我们也能看出那不是出来的。
“These are also big, big logs.
“这些也是很大很大的原木。
These are good commercial logs.
这些都是很好的商业日志。
This is not stuff you would take from rarituri ,” Barbu said.
这不是你从 rarituri 那里拿走的东西，”巴尔布说。
Deliberating, we came to a decision: We would enter the site, record the activity, and confront the loggers, with Barbu filming.
经过深思熟虑，我们做出了决定：我们将进入现场，记录活动，与伐木者对峙，并由巴布拍摄。
Andrei texted our location to a colleague off-site as part of a safety protocol.
作为安全协议的一部分，安德烈将我们的位置短信发送给了场外的一位同事。
To protect his undercover status, and to help facilitate a faster exit in case of emergency, he would stay in the car; Barbu—and by process of elimination I, too—would handle the confrontation.
为了保护自己的卧底身份，也为了在紧急情况下能够更快地离开，他会留在车里；巴尔布——通过淘汰的过程，我也一样——会处理这场对抗。
Getting footage of illegal logging like this would bolster a future case against Ikea’s forest management practices, but at some risk.
获得这样的非法采伐镜头将有助于未来针对宜家森林管理做法的诉讼，但也存在一定风险。
“Fuck,” Barbu muttered, loading memory cards into his camera.
“操，”巴布嘟囔着，将存储卡装入相机。
“I don’t feel like getting beaten up.”
“我不想被殴打。”
We loaded into the car and drove down to the clearing where the felled logs were being piled up.
我们装上车，开到空地，那里堆放着砍伐的原木。
A rock was blocking the path.
一块石头挡住了去路。
I got out of the car and threw it off the road.
我下了车，把它扔到路边。
Outside, Barbu began to film, narrating in Romanian and explaining in English for my benefit.
在外面，巴尔布开始拍摄，用罗马尼亚语旁白并用英语为我解释。
Large, recently cut logs were piled behind a trailer.
最近砍伐的大型原木堆放在拖车后面。
“Cut hours ago,” he added.
“几小时前就剪掉了，”他补充道。
On the far side of the clearing, we found a station where those logs were being split into cords for firewood.
在空地的另一边，我们发现了一个站，这些原木正在被分成木柴的绳索。
At the entrance to the forest, a large plaque announced the operation.
在森林的入口处，一块大牌匾宣布了这次行动。
Just as the database had indicated, it read RARITURI and INGKA INVESTMENTS.
正如数据库所示，它显示为 RARITURI 和 INGKA INVESTMENTS。
Nowhere did we see sickened-looking logs or saplings; putting some grade school wisdom to use, I counted rings that put the trees somewhere in the 80- to 100-year range.
我们在任何地方都没有看到病态的原木或树苗。我运用了一些小学知识，计算了树木的年轮，这些树木的年龄在 80 到 100 年之间。
Absent, too, were the loggers we’d seen on the drone and expected to encounter.
我们在无人机上看到并预计会遇到的伐木者也没有出现。
Then I heard an engine coming not from the direction of the forest, but from the road behind us.
然后我听到引擎声不是来自森林的方向，而是来自我们身后的道路。
A silver SUV pulled into the clearing, and Barbu went over to speak with the driver.
一辆银色SUV驶入空地，巴布走过去与司机交谈。
The man claimed not to be associated with the logging operation, Barbu told me.
巴尔布告诉我，该男子声称与伐木作业无关。
But, troublingly, he also refused to move his car when Barbu pointed out that he was obstructing the only path from the logging site to the road.
但令人不安的是，当巴尔布指出他挡住了从伐木场到公路的唯一路径时，他也拒绝移动他的车。
From that point on, we were blocked in.
从那时起，我们就被封锁了。
A few minutes later, a red tractor emerged from the forest, dragging three large logs.
几分钟后，一辆红色拖拉机从森林里出现，拖着三块大圆木。
“You ready for this?” Barbu asked me.
“你准备好了吗？”巴布问我。
We followed the logger on foot to the pile, where he idled the engine, exited the cab, and began to unchain the new logs.
我们跟着伐木工步行到堆放处，他让发动机空转，离开驾驶室，开始解开新的原木。
Camera rolling, Barbu gestured to the permit, the firewood cutting station, and the logs that had just been brought down.
镜头滚动，巴尔布指着许可证、柴火切割站和刚刚砍倒的原木。
The logger yelled back.
伐木工大声喊道。
The villager got out of his Toyota and came over to film the conversation, too.
村民也下了他的丰田车过来拍摄了这次谈话。
I scanned for a rock to grab in case things turned.
我寻找一块石头来抓住，以防事情发生逆转。
But numbers were on our side—the rest of the logging outfit remained in the forest—and the conversation never got violent.
但人数站在我们这边——伐木队的其余成员仍然留在森林里——而且谈话从未变得暴力。
After a few minutes, the logger clambered back into the tractor and left.
几分钟后，伐木工爬回拖拉机离开。
We, too, made our way back to the car.
我们也回到了车上。
“He was trying to tell me that even for thinning, you can still cut large, healthy trees accidentally,” Barbu recounted for me.
“他试图告诉我，即使是间伐，你仍然可能会意外地砍伐健康的大树，”巴尔布向我讲述道。
“And I said, ‘Look, but this is a big pile of accidents.’ He said, ‘Yeah, well, that’s allowed.
“我说，‘看，这是一大堆事故。’他说，‘是的，这是允许的。
And if you need more answers, go to the management office.’” “Which is fair,” Andrei added, “because he only cuts what’s marked.” The management office, of course, is the Ingka regional office.
如果你需要更多答案，请去管理办公室。”“这很公平，”安德烈补充道，“因为他只剪掉标记的部分。”管理办公室当然是英卡地区办事处。
On my last day in Romania, I stopped by Ikea’s store in Bucharest, curious if there would be any indication of the company’s investment in the local environment, any display of its sustainability pledges in a country where they might actually be visible.
在罗马尼亚的最后一天，我顺便去了宜家位于布加勒斯特的商店，好奇是否有任何迹象表明该公司对当地环境的投资，是否有任何在一个可能真正可见的国家展示其可持续发展承诺的迹象。
Armed with the Google translate app, I skulked around the showroom floor, finding beechwood dining sets, spruce particleboard, and more, but no mention of the furniture’s hometown heritage.
带着谷歌翻译应用程序，我在陈列室地板上鬼鬼祟祟地走来走去，找到了山毛榉木餐桌椅、云杉刨花板等等，但没有提到这些家具的家乡遗产。
In the lobby, a display read, WE USE WOOD RESPONSIBLY.
大厅里的显示屏上写着：我们负责任地使用木材。
I left empty-handed, with no intention to return.
我空手而去，无意再回来。
Ikea makes it difficult to trace the provenance of its furniture.
宜家很难追踪其家具的来源。
Often an Ikea box will claim a country of origin that indicates only the last link in the manufacturing chain: MADE IN VIETNAM, for example.
通常，宜家的盒子会声称原产国，仅表明制造链中的最后一个环节：例如，越南制造。
Sometimes it will tell you even less: MADE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION.
有时它会告诉您更少的信息：欧盟制造。
Internally, however, the company closely tracks points of origin.
然而，该公司在内部密切跟踪原产地。
A string of numbers on the box, inscrutable to the layperson, can indicate a particular manufacturer or contract within a country.
盒子上的一串外行人难以理解的数字可以指示一个国家内的特定制造商或合同。
Those codes remain fiercely guarded and are often changed, but in the course of my reporting, I was tipped off with the cipher for Plimob, the Ikea manufacturer in Romania that was recently exposed for using illegally logged wood in a number of Ikea’s low-cost, flagship chairs.
这些代码仍然受到严格保护，并且经常被更改，但在我的报道过程中，我得到了 Plimob 的密码，Plimob 是罗马尼亚的宜家制造商，最近被曝光在宜家的一些低成本旗舰椅子中使用非法砍伐的木材。
I decided to return to Ikea once more, this time back in New York, in search of something that might fit the profile.
我决定再次回到宜家，这次是回到纽约，寻找一些适合我的东西。
The loading bay of the Brooklyn warehouse was sparse by the time I got there.
当我到达布鲁克林仓库时，装货区人烟稀少。
Particularly for popular, low-price items, inventory is often tough to come by at this store, which serves much of New York City.
特别是对于流行的低价商品，在这家为纽约市大部分地区提供服务的商店里通常很难获得库存。
It was late November, and the snarls of the supply-chain crisis were still evident in the empty shelves.
已是 11 月底，供应链危机的影响在空荡荡的货架上依然清晰可见。
Still, I found furniture made in Bulgaria and Poland and, finally, Romania.
尽管如此，我还是发现了保加利亚和波兰制造的家具，最后是罗马尼亚制造的。
On a picked-over stack of green Rönninge chairs, one of the fancier makes, I spotted the Plimob code.
在一堆捡来的绿色 Rönninge 椅子上，我发现了 Plimob 代码。
The chair cost $95.
这把椅子花了 95 美元。
This article appeared in the March 2022 print edition with the headline “Crime and Forestry.”
本文发表于 2022 年 3 月印刷版，标题为“犯罪与林业”。
Alexander Sammon, a former reporter-researcher at The New Republic, is a staff writer at The American Prospect.
亚历山大·萨蒙 (Alexander Sammon) 是《新共和》的前记者兼研究员，现为《美国展望》的特约撰稿人。