Indonesian authorities struck a blow against rampant illegal lumber smuggling in the country's easternmost region by intercepting a shipment of 21 containers of prized ironwood from Papua.

The wood was poached from the Kaimana tropical forest on Papua.  It was already processed and ready for shipment to Surabaya, according to the enforcement arm of Indonesia's Forestry and Environment Ministry.  The port city and capital of East Java is a center of Indonesia's wood furniture manufacturing and export industry.

But Greenpeace Indonesia complains that the 21 containers represent a fraction of what is regularly shipped from Papua in long-established smuggling operations.  The campaigners says none of the major actors in the illicit trade have been prosecuted.

In 2016, Indonesia was admitted to an EU licensing system that makes it easier for wood producers to export to the bloc.