THE damage caused by China’s 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’s 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’s timber by the end of the year. Last year it imported 1…
