[Mb-civic] Guardian Unlimited: China 'strips forests in Burma'

[harry.sifton at sympatico.ca]

Harry spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see it.

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

China 'strips forests in Burma'
John Vidal, environment editor
Wednesday October 19 2005
The Guardian


Chinese logging companies are colluding with the Burmese military commanders and ethnic leaders to illegally strip and export large tracts of some of the world's most ecologically important forests, according to a two-year investigation by London-based watchdog group Global Witness.

The illegal cross-border timber trade between Kachin state in northern Burma and Yunnan province in China is said to be worth up to $400m (£230m) a year and conducted with the knowledge of both central governments, says the group, which has investigated illegal logging throughout Africa and Asia and helped manage Cambodia's forests.

According to the report, published yesterday in Bangkok, the trade is centred on the Chinese border town of Pian Ma where 100 logging companies are based. Last year more than a million cubic metres of timber - about 95% of Burma's total timber exports to China - are said to have been illegally exported from Kachin state to Yunnan province. "Kachin state has been turned into a natural resource storehouse for development in China ... large tracts of forest have been almost entirely logged out," the report says.

"The trade is completely out of control and it keeps on rising," Susanne Kempel of Global Witness said yesterday. "There are no forests left along the border."

Much of the logging takes place in what is known as the Indo-Burma biological hotspot, an area described by biologists as one of the most biodiverse areas on earth, with 91 mammal species including the tiger, and 365 bird species.

The report argues that money generated from the illegal trade has funded conflict in Burma and led to human rights abuses and increased poverty.

The group says that unless China takes action the logging will undermine long-term economic development on both sides of the border and destabilise the region. "Burma's forests are viewed as an opportunity to find employment for thousands of unemployed people. There is mounting concern [in China] that the growing ranks of the unemployed represent a pool of discontent and a potential source of social instability. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Chinese workers employed in logging, transportation and road building in Kachin state, and in the timber processing industries of Yunnan province and further afield, could soon lose their jobs unless the industry is put on a sustainable footing."

China is dependent on imported timber since it banned the felling of its old-growth forests in 1998. Malaysia, Russia, Indonesia and Gabon now export large quantities to China. According to official figures, exports of logs and sawn timber from Burma to China have more than doubled in the past six years.

China's foreign ministry yesterday told AP that it had taken "strong measures to crack down on all kinds of crimes including illegal deforesting across the border".

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