People’s Republic of China
Grave concerns have been expressed about the origin of much of the timber imported into China; it is said that much of the imported hardwood may be illegal because it was logged in natural forests, outside concession boundaries, or was logged in excess of existing licences (Zhu, Taylor & Guoqiang 2004: 22). It has been estimated that approximately one-third of roundwood imports into China may come from an illegal source and 32 percent of hardwood lumber imports are also considered suspicious. While plywood imports into China are smaller in volume, it was found that 55–56 percent of all plywood imports into China may be suspicious (Table 26).
Table 26: Suspicious wood imports by type of wood, China, 2002 Total imports
(’000m3) Suspicious volume,
% of imports Softwood
Roundwood 16,800 31.5
Lumber 1,189 17.0
Plywood 155 55.0
Hardwood
Roundwood 8,550 30.6
Lumber 4,210 32.0
Plywood 480 56.0
Source: Seneca Creek (2004: 15–16)
Russian imports are seen as particularly suspicious and are said to involve approximately 40 percent of illegally sourced timber (Stark & Cheung 2006: 29; see also section ‘Russia:
Illegal logging’, p. 66). Indonesia is another source of many illegal logs imported into China.
Indonesian roundwood is usually shipped illegally to Malaysia by large organised networks, re-tagged as Malaysian timber and shipped to third countries, especially China. Import records of China’s customs authority show great discrepancies between the quantities of timber imported from Indonesia and Malaysia and the quantities shown on export records in those countries. For example, in 2004, investigations found that 59 percent of log imports from Indonesia and Malaysia were of unidentified origin (Stark & Cheung 2006: 38, 40–41).
The port of Zhanjiagang, south of Shanghai, has been flagged as the main port of entry for illegal hardwood imports from South–East Asia (Stark & Cheung 2006: 43).
Given that so much of the imported timber comes from illegal sources, observers believe that the current levels and avenues of timber imports into China cannot be sustained for long; the forest areas and timber resources of China’s main supplying countries are shrinking. One result of this development could be that prices for timber and timber products may increase substantially (Zhu, Taylor & Guoqiang 2004: 22). Conversely, the expected growth of timber demand in China may result in timber being imported from new sources; New Zealand and Argentina have been identified as emerging suppliers, especially
of pulpwood (Zhu, Taylor & Guoqiang 2004: 29). It may also mean greater imports from illegal sources and through new illegal avenues, thus further contributing to illegal logging and deforestation in the region and beyond. The growing levels of imports from PNG and the Solomon Islands seem to confirm this trend.
Consumption
China has a massive and rapidly growing demand for timber and timber products. Attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to slow the domestic demand for timber and timber products by promoting and requiring use of non-wood substitutes failed (Zhu, Taylor & Guoqiang 2004:
7). It has been estimated that China’s total domestic consumption increased from 138 million cubic metres in 2003 to 174 cubic metres in 2004 (Stark & Cheung 2006: 27; Zhu, Taylor & Guoqiang 2004: 15–16). The ITTO predicts that consumption of roundwood alone will increase to about 89 million cubic metres in 2007 in addition to 31.5 million cubic metres of sawnwood, 12.3 million cubic metres of plywood and 3 million cubic metres of veneer (ITTO 2007: 55). Much of the consumption involves high-value tropical timber. China is the world’s largest consumer of tropical veneer and tropical plywood, the third-largest consumer of tropical sawnwood, and the fifth-largest consumer of tropical logs (ITTO 2007: 5, 7).
The ever-increasing consumption of timber and timber products in China is explained by its booming economy, which is growing at a rapid pace. Simultaneously, China’s middle class is growing in number and wealth, creating an insatiable demand for all types of timber products. In particular, China’s rapidly expanding residential housing sector needs large amounts of timber as a building material and for flooring, furniture and interior decoration.
Most of the timber used in this sector involves high quality tropical hardwood from species such as merbau, jatoba and teak, and also plywood made from bintangor, meranti and okoume (Stark & Cheung 2006: 18). These species have been identified as particularly vulnerable to illegal logging and they usually originate from countries with high levels of suspicious timber exports. China also uses vast amounts of timber for infrastructure projects, as fuelwood, and in the production of pulpwood and paper (Zhu, Taylor &
Guoqiang 2004: 2,16, 17). It has been estimated that approximately one-third of the roundwood consumed in China comes from illegal sources (Table 27).
Table 27: Suspicious wood consumption by type of wood, China, 2002 Total consumption
(’000m3) Suspicious volume,
% of consumption Softwood
Roundwood 54,696 31.5
Hardwood
Roundwood 28,059 30.6
Source: Seneca Creek (2004: 15–16)
With China’s economy growing at a rapid pace, it is widely anticipated that demand for timber will continue to grow. A recent report suggested that wood consumption would rise to 171 million cubic metres of industrial timber by 2010 in addition to 69 million cubic metres of pulp and paper (Zhu, Taylor & Guoqiang 2004: 24). The growing demand is expected to place further pressure on supply countries as well as on China’s domestic forest resources, which are only slowly recovering from decades of excessive exploitation (White et al. 2006:
8–9; see also section ‘People’s Republic of China: Timber resources’, p. 75). Many see China’s massive timber consumption as the single greatest threat to the forest resources in the Asia–Pacific and as one of the main reasons for the high levels of illegal logging in many countries in the region (Katsigris et al. 2004: 237; White et al. 2006: 14–15; Zhu, Taylor &
Guoqiang 2004: 29).