U.S. Major Im****ter of Illegal Asian Timber, Study Says
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
May 13, 2008
Vietnam has become a hub for processing Asia's illegally logged
timber, much of which is sold in the United States as outdoor
furniture, conservationists say.
In a re****t released in March, the U.K.-based nonprofit Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian partner Telapak warned
that the illegal timber trade is threatening some of the last intact
forests in Southeast Asia, especially in Laos.
"Despite wide awareness of the problem of illegal logging and a series
of political commitments to tackle the issue, demand for cut-price
wood products is still fuelling the illegal destruction of some of the
worlds most significant remaining tropical forests," said Julian
Newman, head of the EIA's forest campaign program.
It is currently legal in the United States to im****t illegally sourced
wood products. But legislation now under consideration in the U.S.
Congress would ban im****ts of wood products derived from illegally
harvested timber.
Endangered Species at Greater Risk
EIA estimates that the illegal logging business, which the agency says
is orchestrated by cross-border criminal syndicates working with
corrupt officials, costs developing countries some 10 billion to 15
billion U.S. dollars a year.
A rise in timber prices has prompted some wood-producing countries,
such as Indonesia, to clamp down on illegal logging.
Other countries, such as China and Vietnam, have taken measures to
sharply reduce all logging of their own forests, while im****ting
timber from neighboring countries for their growing timber-processing
industries.
Around 60 percent of the trade in tropical timber moves between the
countries of southern and eastern Asia, according to EIA.
"One of the biggest ****fts in the timber industry in Asia over the
last decade or so has been the emergence of a huge wood-processing
industry in China and Vietnam," said Newman.
The Mekong region=97which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos,
Myanmar (Burma), and China=97has some of the most valuable and
vulnerable tree species sought by the international timber trade,
including rosewood, keruing, teak, and yellow balau.
(See a map of southeast Asia.)
Mekong forests are also home to a range of endangered animals,
including the clouded leopard, tiger, and Malayan sun bear.
(See related photo: "New Leopard Species Announced" [March 15, 2007].)
Many of the remaining forests in the region have been so heavily
logged that they are now of critically low quality. In Laos, for
example, only around 10 percent of forests remain commercially viable,
according to the re****t.
Undercover Investigations
In Vietnam logging is restricted to 5.3 million cubic feet (150,000
cubic meters) from forests grown for timber production.
To satisfy its demand for raw products, Vietnam is exploiting the
forests of neighboring Laos despite Laotian laws, which ban the ex****t
of logs and cut timber, the EIA re****t claims.
(Related news: "Vietnam Becoming Asia's Illegal Animal 'Supermarket,'
Experts Warn" [September 13, 2006].)
In the Vietnamese ****t of Vinh, undercover investigators found piles
of huge logs from Laos awaiting sale.
At one border crossing 45 trucks carrying logs were seen lining up on
the Laos side waiting to cross into Vietnam.
The agencies estimate that at least 17.7 million cubic feet (500,000
cubic meters) of logs move illegally from Laos to Vietnam every year.
"This trade is organized by informal networks involving timber brokers
and government and military officials on both sides of the border,"
Newman said.
"The losers are the rural communities [in Laos] who traditionally rely
on forests for their livelihood."
According to the Laotian government, forest cover in the country has
declined from 70 percent in the 1970s to 40 percent today.
Large volumes of timber from Laos also go to China's burgeoning wood-
processing industry, researchers say.
Jeff Hayward is the verification manager of the SmartWood Program for
the Rainforest Alliance in Wa****ngton, D.C.
"The EIA study illustrates the ways and means for illicit timber to
end up in the workshops of Vietnam, resulting in consumers [in Europe
and the United States] unwittingly buying furniture that comes at the
cost of forests in Laos and Cambodia," he said.
New Legislation
Vietnam's furniture ex****ts reached U.S. $2.4 billion in 2007, a ten-
fold increase since 2000.
The United States is by far the largest market for Vietnamese wooden
furniture, accounting for almost 40 percent of the ex****ts.
"Illegal logging and trade are rife, but most businesses don't ask
hard questions about the source of the wood they buy, because they
simply don't have to do so," said Andrea Johnson, the forest campaigns
coordinator for EIA in Wa****ngton, D.C.
"Until consumer markets like the U.S. change their no-questions-asked
policy, irreplaceable forests from Indonesia to Vietnam to Honduras to
the Congo are going to continue to end up as dining room tables and
****ch swings."
The U.S. legislation being considered prohibits the im****t or trade of
illegally sourced timber and wood products.
The bill has broad political sup****t and is backed by virtually all
major environmental organizations and the U.S. timber industry.
Illegal logging costs U.S. companies as much as a billion U.S. dollars
a year in lost ex****ts and reduces prices for timber products,
according to the American Forest and Paper Association.
"This law will send a major signal to the global timber sector that
the world's largest consumer market is closing its doors to illegal
wood," Johnson said.
"Companies who source on the up-and-up and conduct strong due
diligence will now be rewarded with market share rather than undercut
by cheaper illegal products."
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