Illegal timbe trade threatens valuable forests.

There are many other places where the illegal timber trade is prevalent. Illegal logging is a huge problem in the Philippines--where I stayed for over a year.


Corruption Stains Timber Trade
Forests Destroyed in China's Race to Feed Global Wood-Processing
Industry

By Peter S. Goodman and Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 1, 2007; Page A01

MYITKYINA, Burma -- The Chinese logging boss set his sights on a
thickly forested mountain just inside Burma, aiming to harvest one of
the last natural stands of teak on Earth.

He handed a rice sack stuffed with $8,000 worth of Chinese currency
to two agents with connections in the Burmese borderlands, the men
said in interviews. They used that stash to bribe everyone standing
between the teak and China. In came Chinese logging crews. Out went
huge logs, over Chinese-built roads.

Every day huge volumes of logs, many of them harvested illegally,
stream toward Chinese factories where workers churn out products such
as furniture and floorboards. These wares are shipped to major
retailers like Ikea and Home Depot, and are bought by shoppers with
little inkling of the wood's origins.

Some of the largest swaths of natural forest left on the planet are
being harvested at an alarming pace to feed a global wood-processing
industry centered in coastal China. The Chinese demand for wood is
fueling illegal timber operations in parts of Indonesia, Burma and
Siberia.

About 2,500 miles to the northeast, Chinese and Russian crews hacked
into the virgin forests of the Russian Far East and Siberia, hauling
away 250-year-old Korean pines in often-illegal deals, according to
trading companies and environmentalists. In the highlands of Papua
New Guinea, Indonesia and Africa and in the forests of the Amazon,
loggers working beyond the bounds of the law have sent a ceaseless
flow of timber to China.

Some of the largest swaths of natural forest left on the planet are
being dismantled at an alarming pace to feed a global wood-processing
industry centered in coastal China.

Mountains of logs, many of them harvested in excess of legal limits
aimed at preserving forests, are streaming toward Chinese factories
where workers churn out such products as furniture and floorboards.
These wares are shipped from China to major retailers such as Ikea,
Home Depot, Lowe's and many others. They land in homes and offices in
the United States and Europe, bought by shoppers with little inkling
of the wood's origins or the environmental costs of chopping it down.

"Western consumers are leaving a violent ecological footprint in
Burma and other countries," said an American environmental activist
who frequently travels to Burma and goes by the pen name Zao Noam to
preserve access to the authoritarian country. "Predominantly, the
Burmese timber winds up as patio furniture for Americans. Without
their demand, there wouldn't be a timber trade."

At the current pace of cutting, natural forests in Indonesia and
Burma -- which send more than half their exported logs to China --
will be exhausted within a decade, according to research by Forest
Trends, a consortium of industry and conservation groups. Forests in
Papua New Guinea will be consumed in as little as 13 years, and those
in the Russian Far East within two decades.

These forests are a bulwark against global warming, capturing carbon
dioxide that would otherwise contribute to heating the planet. They
hold some of the richest flora and fauna anywhere, and they have
supplied generations of people with livelihoods that are now
threatened.

In the world's poorest countries, illegal logging on public lands
annually costs governments $10 billion in lost assets and revenues, a
figure more than six times the aid these nations receive to help
protect forests, a World Bank study found last year.

Environmental activists have prodded some of the largest purveyors of
wood products to adopt conservation policies. Industry leaders and
conservationists have crafted standards meant to give forests time to
regenerate. They certify operations that comply and encourage
consumers to buy certified goods.

But such efforts are in their infancy and are vulnerable to abuse.
Corruption bedevils the timber trade in poor countries.

"What we've done very well so far with certification is to reward the
best players in the marketplace," said Ned Daly, vice president of
U.S. operations for a leading certification body, the Forest
Stewardship Council. "What we haven't done very well is to figure out
how to exclude the worst players. We're having a hard time getting
the criminals to label their products 'illegal.' "

full:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033101287.html