ja , the Ban long Ratta**** Kiri - Quihon sea****t highway .
On May 14, 9:56=A0am, Chim <Chi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 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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