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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:44 am
Time: 11:44 am
Results for illegal logging (china)
1 results foundAuthor: Environmental Investigation Agency Title: Appetite for Destruction: China's Trade in Illegal Timber Summary: In November 2011 China hosted the annual Asia-Pacific Forestry Week meeting conference at an impressive and vast centre near the Olympic Stadium in Beijing. During the week-long event participants from around Asia and beyond discussed a range of issues, encompassing China’s impressive reforestation programme to the links between deforestation and climate change. The meeting coincided with the tenth anniversary of the landmark Bali Declaration agreed at the East Asia ministerial meeting on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance in 2001. This event marked the first time governments from the region, including China, had come together to address the threat posed by widespread illegal logging. Yet meaningful discussions on illegal logging were strangely absent from the Beijing conference. This was probably out of deference to the hosts, as over the past decade China has emerged as the world’s leading trader in illegally logged timber. During the last decade, the major timber consumers of the United States, European Union and Australia have taken action to exclude illicit timber from their markets. Timber producing countries such as Indonesia have improved enforcement against illegal logging. Meanwhile, China has largely stood on the sidelines. The astounding economic growth of China attracts a host of superlatives; its position as the largest importer of stolen wood is one of the more undesirable ones. Since the late 1990s the country has taken strong measures to protect and grow its own forests. At the same time it has built a vast wood processing industry, reliant on imports for most of its raw materials supply. It is in effect exporting deforestation. Although much of the wood processing sector is export-oriented, the vast construction effort in China, coupled with increasing wealth, is creating a surge in domestic demand for timber products. A vivid example is the fashion for reproduction furniture made from rare rosewoods, which has created an upsurge in illegal logging from the Mekong region to Madagascar. The Environmental Investigation Agency has been conducting field investigations into flows of illicit timber since 2004, covering a host of producer countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, Russia, Laos, Mozambique and Madagascar and, of course, China itself. The findings from these investigations, laid out in this report, show the impact of illegal logging to feed China’s market; destruction of vital forest ecosystems, loss of revenue for developing countries, increased corruption and conflict. This report also includes analysis of trade data showing flows of illicit timber into China worth billions of dollars a year, and highlights imports from countries known to have high rates of illegal logging and instances where national regulations such as log export bands are disregarded. The evidence makes a clear case for action by China. It needs to take measures to exclude illegally logged timber from its market. The fate of many of the world’s natural forests depends on this. Details: London: EIA, 2012. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 28, 2013 at: http://www.eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-Appetite-for-Destruction-lo-res.pdf Year: 2012 Country: China URL: http://www.eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-Appetite-for-Destruction-lo-res.pdf Shelf Number: 128157 Keywords: DeforestationForest ManagementIllegal Logging (China)Illegal TradeNatural Resources |