THE damage caused by China鈥檚 voracious appetite for timber is spreading. A report says China is the key culprit in the large-scale felling of forests in neighbouring Burma (also Myanmar).
Burma is one of the world鈥檚 biodiversity hotspots. It is home to vast swathes of virgin forest, rich with giant hemlock, junipers and Chinese coffin trees, some of them several hundred years old.
According to the report published this month by London-based campaign group Global Witness, China is expected to import 1.4 million cubic metres of Burma鈥檚 timber by the end of the year. Last year it imported 1 million cubic metres, and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization says Burma鈥檚 forest cover fell by 1.4 per cent in the same year.
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鈥淐hina should immediately stop logging in Burma,鈥� the Global Witness report says. The problem has worsened since 1999, when China banned internal logging after devastating flash floods were blamed on deforestation.
Peter Wharton, a botanist from the University of British Columbia in Canada who visited the region recently, calls it an environmental disaster in the making. 鈥淚t makes no sense,鈥� he says. 鈥淥n the Chinese side you have a region of protected forest, so the Chinese are just going across the border and logging in Burma. The clear loser is the environment.鈥�