BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - European Union ministers on Tuesday rejected a proposal to ban the import of illegal timber and timber products, approving a series of less stringent measures.
EU agriculture ministers, meeting in Brussels, rejected an outright ban as favoured by Britain, Spain and the Netherlands and agreed instead on measures including stricter rules on the certification of timber entering the EU... [Continue]
Wagons brimming with logs accumulate in the Siberian railway station of Dalnerechensk, more than 8,000km (4,971 miles) east of Moscow. They are waiting to cross the nearby Chinese border.
Once in China, they will be processed and used for construction or turned into garden furniture and other products to be sold in European and US shops.
More than a third of all Russian logs are smuggled by mafias, a practice that doubled between 2005 and 2007, according to official figures... [Continue]
The government of Madagascar has been accused by conservation groups of allowing the illegal trade in precious wood to flourish.
Environmental campaigners claim that an executive decree issued last month legalising the export of raw hardwood, including rosewood and ebony, has given free rein to criminal gangs who fell endangered trees to sell on the international market... [Continue]
Kenya - The rising demand for timber in Kenyas coastal towns has driven merchants turning to mango and coconut trees.
The timber dealers have descended on indigenous trees on the Coast to fill orders for charcoal burning, carving, construction of boats and new buildings.
In the mad rush for timber, protected areas like the mangrove forests have not been spared, while charcoal burners and woodcarvers occasionally invade the Tsavo for wood... [Continue]
Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) seized six heavy-duty Stihl chain saws and 6,872 board feet of lumber and flitches during a string of anti-illegal logging operations in Infanta, Quezon, and Tanay, Rizal, early this month.
DENR Secretary Lito Atienza, who presented the seized chainsaws to the media at the DENR grounds in Quezon City, said the confiscation of the chainsaws bolstered their suspicion that illegal logging is on the rise with the onset of the summer season in the two provinces... [Continue]
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Poor record keeping and illegal logging is raising concerns of over-exploitation of Merbau, finds a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
Merbau, a tropical hardwood, is popular in Europe and elsewhere as a flooring material. Roughly 30,000 cubic metres of Merbau timber entered the EU in 2005, half of it direct from Indonesia, the remainder from Malaysia and, after processing, from China... [Continue]
Mit einer gelben Karte quittieren Umweltschützer die Kehrtwende der Bundeskanzlerin in Sachen Umweltschutz und ihre Wirkungslosigkeit zum Waldschutz im Speziellen. Da Klima- und Waldschutz eine viel zu ernste Sache seien, dürfe sich die Kanzlerin künftig kein weiteres Foulspiel erlauben.
Um angemessen über die Dramatik beim Klimawandel und der Waldzerstörung informiert zu sein, solle sich die Kanzlerin im neuen Jahr öfter mit Klimaforschern und UmweltschützerInnen treffen... [Continue]
