Tuesday, March 19, 2013

China's woody appetite


Demand for disposable wooden chopsticks in the mainland has seen production increase from 57 billion in 2010 to a recent estimate of 80 billion per year. This is just the tip of the iceberg, with a growing appetite of other timber products, from rosewood furniture to printing paper, casting China with the unfortunate label as the world’s top importer of illegal timber. Meanwhile, the international community have agreed to stem the trade of a number of economically-valuable timber species, at a recent CITES conference in Bangkok. Can China continue to risk leaving the illegal trade in timber unchecked?

No comments:

Post a Comment