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China Playing Central Role To Laundering Stolen Timber
Jakarta (AFP) Mar 29, 2006 China plays a central role in laundering illegal timber from some of the world's most endangered forests in the Asia-Pacific, Greenpeace said in a report released Tuesday. The trade converting stolen timber into furniture, flooring and plywood was driven by demand in Japan and western countries, the environmental watchdog said in the report, the second in as many weeks emphasising the destructive role which consumers play. China is the world's largest importer of tropical wood, with half of all tropical trees logged globally ending up in the world's most populous nation. In the last decade alone, its total consumption of wood has jumped 70 percent, Greenpeace said. Much of the supply comes from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, where at least three-quarters of logging is illegal, it said. "Illegal logging is rampant in many of the countries that supply China with wood and this destructive trade is fueling the global forest crisis," said Sze Pang Cheung, deputy campaign director for Greenpeace China. "China has committed internationally to tackle this problem and must, together with all countries that import these wood products, take urgent concrete action to ban the trade in timber from illegal or destructive logging," he said in a statement. The Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, is currently in Indonesia's Papua province on a mission to protect forests from such logging. A separate report from a coalition of international and Chinese organisations released last week made similar allegations against China as well as the US, Japan and Europe. That report called for governments and the forestry industry to increase transparency and crack down on corruption driving illegal logging.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Greenpeace Forestry News - Global and Local News, Science and Application
US Japan Europe Drive Chinese Imports Of Illegal Wood
Jakarta (AFP) Mar 27, 2006Consumers in the United States, Japan and Europe are fuelling Chinese imports of illegal timber harvested in countries known for illicit logging activities and graft, a report released Friday said. |
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