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China Buying Threatened Hardwood    [

    Greenpeace Says China Guilty in Illegal Logging
    Reuters

    Wednesday 18 April 2007

    Beijing - Environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday China should take responsibility for illegal hardwood logging in Southeast Asia which supplied the raw materials for Chinese exports to the West.

    Greenpeace's China office said China's timber industry was complicit in the illegal felling of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea's merbau trees, with logs then smuggled to China and processed and exported as floorboards and high-end furnishings to the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.

    "We are arguing that both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea bear responsibility to tighten (curbs on illegal logging and manufacture) within their own countries, but so too does China, as a major recipient of the wood, and the Chinese industry for being complicit in allowing the smuggling to occur," said Greenpeace China forest campaign manager Tamara Stark.

    Greenpeace said smugglers were importing banned Indonesian merbau into China using forged Malaysian documentation, and were taking logs from illegal forest concessions in Papua New Guinea.

    "Almost all of the (Chinese) traders readily admit that they know this wood is illegal and is being smuggled in but because it's commanding such a high price in the international market, they're willing to proceed and take the risks," Stark told reporters.

    "China is by far the largest market for merbau. It's a highly prized and endangered tropical hardwood. The reality is, it's also international trade that's fuelling the destruction of these forests."

    Merbau is a resilient red hardwood, one of the most valuable in Southeast Asia.

    Stark said China had failed to deploy enough resources to stop illegal log smuggling.

    "The central government position is strong ... But it's an issue of governance on a provincial basis ... There are far too few staff assigned," she said.

    "Strict Supervision"

    China's Foreign Ministry brushed away accusations that the country's demand for timber was hastening the destruction of Southeast Asian forests.

    "China has a strict system of supervision and management of its timber and timber product imports," ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

    "As a large importer and exporter of timber and timber products, China places a high level of importance on cooperating with timber-producing countries to develop forest resources according to principles of mutual benefit and long-term sustainable development," Liu said.

    Left unchecked, the logging of merbau wood, priced at over US$600 per cubic metre (35 cubic feet), would lead to the "destruction of an entire eco-system", Stark said.

    "In many cases, only one to five merbau trees are found per hectare ... The challenge is, the logging industry is only interested in the merbau, but they have to clear huge swathes at the forest to get to those few trees."

    Greenpeace said merbau forests would be wiped out within 35 years if the current rate of legal logging was sustained, but illegal logging would lead to their extinction "much sooner".

    In October, the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) flagged trade restrictions on Southeast Asian merbau because of rapid depletion.

    China, whose own forest cover has nearly doubled in 50 years to 18 percent today according to forestry officials, is regularly accused by environmental groups of plundering forests in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, and of being at the heart of a global trade in illegal timber sold to Western markets.

 

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    Go to Original

    Group: China Buying Threatened Hardwood
    By Michael Casey
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 17 April 2007

    Bangkok, Thailand - China is deliberately mislabeling a threatened hardwood and using forged trade documents to illegally import it from Southeast Asia to supply its booming furniture industry, an environmental group said Tuesday.

    Greenpeace said in a report that Chinese importers were evading an Indonesian ban on the hardwood known as merbau by labeling it as sawn timber. Importers also used forged documents which claimed the logs came from Malaysia, despite the fact that much of the merbau has already been logged out of that country.

    China imported thousands of cubic yards of illegal tropical hardwood from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea last year, Greenpeace said.

    "This is a highly prized species for luxury goods and the market demand in China as well as in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific is driving merbau to extinction," said Tamara Stark, Greenpeace China's Forests Campaign Coordinator.

    She said at the current legally approved rates of logging, merbau will disappear from the wild within 35 years. With the illegal trade, it will likely happen sooner than that, she added.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the government "requests its enterprises to engage in logging and processing activities in accordance with the laws of other countries."

    "We have serious procedures for the import of timber," Liu said, adding Chinese authorities supervise such imports and crack down on illegal activities.

    China has the second-largest wood products manufacturing sector in the world, and is the largest trader in tropical timber. One of every two tropical logs traded globally is now destined for China, and China is the world's largest market for merbau, Greenpeace said.

    Most of the timber products made in China are destined for markets in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia, with companies often unable to prove the legality of the timber, the group said.

    Greenpeace did not name any foreign companies that are buying the wood products.

    Greenpeace called on the governments of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to immediately propose merbau be listed on the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species to better control its trade. It also called on the U.S. and European countries to ban the import of illegal timber.

    Manufacturers, it said, should also adopt systems for tracking merbau and other species to ensure the legality of the trade and sustainability of supply. They should also purchase timber that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

    "If the manufacturing sector here continues to rely on endangered species or wood that is illegal, large portions of the industry may collapse in the near future," said Liu Bing, a Greenpeace Forests Campaigner in China.