ABC57 Investigates: The RV industry's role in overseas rainforest deforestation

The RV industry is the country's largest importer of tropical wood, and conservationists are trying to push better sourcing policies to prevent rainforest deforestation. The recent pressure campaign started with a series of billboards put up throughout Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties in April. Those billboards bore the message, "RVs shouldn't kill orangutans."

The group behind this billboard, Mighty Earth, grew frustrated after a year of silence from major RV companies, so they upped the ante. ABC57's Annie Kate accompanied those activists back in May when they put the billboard on wheels and drove around Elkhart County.

One of the rotating messages on the billboard truck read, "Your RVs are deforestation on wheels." Despite showing up in person at corporate RV offices, no efforts yielded a discussion with a representative.

Mighty Earth is the group behind the pressure campaign, and Indiana Director Mike Oles said it's no surprise why they chose where to make noise.

"85 to 90% of RVs in North America are made, you know, in Elkhart County, right?" he said.

It's the manufacturing hub of the recreational vehicle, and home to corporate headquarters for the biggest RV companies.

"They're literally linked to one of the worst cases of deforestation active on the planet right now," Oles said.

Amanda Hurowitz is a senior director for Mighty Earth, based in Washington, DC.

"I oversee the forest commodities team, and we focus on stopping deforestation in Southeast Asia and West and Central Africa," she said.

In its work, Mighty Earth discovered immense forest clearing on the Indonesian island of Borneo in the Mayawana Persada concession.

"As we were trying to identify what was driving this deforestation, we made this connection to the recreational vehicle industry here in the U.S." Hurowitz said. "We're an organization that works to stop deforestation. We had never intended to go after the RV industry. That was not on our agenda."

Trees cleared in Indonesia are ending up in Indiana.

"10,000 miles of supply chain from Borneo to Elkhart, Indiana," Oles said.

"What happens is this Lauan, or meranti, is harvested there, then it goes to, I think, Sumatra, and then from Sumatra, we traced it to California, an importer there," Hurowitz said. "And from there, it goes to a fabricator called Patrick Industries, and from Patrick Industries, it's used by Winnebago, by Thor, by Forest River. And together, they control about 85% of the RV industry."

Mighty Earth released its report in August 2025, and the same month, The New York Times also broke the story.

"When you get a front-page story on a huge national newspaper like the New York Times, you hope that it'll make a difference," Oles said.

The ringing of Alarm bells by these activists is apparently falling on deaf ears.

"What became very clear is that the RV companies were not going to engage with us," Oles said. "You know, they're a very powerful force in Indiana. They have a vision of how they want to do business."

ABC57 has not gotten any response to its various requests to speak to an RV industry representative regarding wood-sourcing practices.

RVs are made up of a lot of wood.

"We were somewhat surprised by how much wood goes into an RV," Hurowitz said. "It's going into the structure. One industry insider told us that an RV is essentially a meranti box on wheels."

"Walls, flooring, ceilings, cabinets, you know, wherever, wherever there's a piece of wood that's needed, most likely it's meranti," Oles said, "because it's lightweight, it's flexible, it can be cut thin, you know, it's a good piece of plywood. It's cheap. But the reason it's so cheap is because it's coming from a place where there's not a lot of regulation, and we're not factoring in the future costs."

Those future costs include the loss of orangutan habitat, he said. Video given to ABC57 shows the clearing in Mayawana Persada, which is also home to indigenous Dayak people.

U.S. trade with Indonesia exceeded $14 billion in 2025, according to the ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States, who spoke in a May business forum regarding forest products and trade. The U.S. accounts for roughly 15 percent of the country's total wood exports.

"The U.S. is among Indonesia's key export destinations of forest-based products," the ambassador said. "In recreational vehicle industries, approximately 500 Lauan trees per day, or 500 merantis per day [are used]. Most of these tropical trees come from Indonesia."

Conservation groups like Mighty Earth want to persuade the RV industry to adopt sourcing policies that would prevent rainforest deforestation. Oles called it a "very solvable issue."

"We would like the RV industry to adopt sustainability standards similar to what Home Depot or Lowes has," Hurowitz said.

These stores only sell timber from Forest Stewardship Council-certified forests, so they argue the RV industry should only buy Lauan or meranti from FSC-certified sources.

Another solution Mighty Earth proposed is switching to plywood alternatives like composites.

But after over a year of trying to speak with someone, even picketing outside Elkhart corporate offices, activists told ABC57 the only response they've received is silence.

"We know that when the RV industry does well, we all do well, right?" Oles said. "And but we also need to make sure that our RVs are made in a way that is good for the planet, and for you know, and for you know people elsewhere."

Again, ABC57 has sent multiple requests to RV companies, requesting to speak with a representative about RV wood-sourcing practices, and has not gotten a response.