Environmentalists call on Blair to protect Asia's forests

Sharing the blame - China's role in Ancient Forest Destruction

As Tony Blair heads to Jakarta on the latest leg of his Asian tour, Greenpeace is demanding that the Prime Minister addresses the role Britain is playing in the destruction of Indonesia's ancient forests. The visit comes just one month after the Indonesian forest minister asked EU countries to stop acting as markets for illegal timber.

Greenpeace today released a new report detailing how illegal timber from some of the world's most endangered forests - including Indonesia's Paradise Forest - is being laundered through China before being shipped to Europe. Greenpeace wants Mr Blair to take steps to ban the import into the UK of illegally logged timber. The trade through China is driven by domestic and international demand, but Mr Blair and other European leaders have so far failed to implement strong legislation to protect the worlds last ancient forests.

The report 'Sharing the Blame: Global Consumption and China's Role in Ancient Forest Destruction', tracks illegally logged timber, particularly from the Paradise Forests that stretch across Asia, being shipped to China. There it is made into furniture, flooring and plywood for domestic consumption and for export.

The report reveals that China is now the world's largest importer of tropical woods, with half of all tropical trees logged globally now end up in China. Much of this wood comes from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, where more than three-quarters of the logging is illegal. EU states like Britain play a key role in fuelling the international demand for timber products from countries and regions where illegal and destructive logging is rife. The EU is the second largest market for sawn timber from Asia and the second largest market for Asian plywood.

"Illegal logging is rampant in many of the countries that supply China, including Indonesia, and much of the wood ends up in Europe" said Pat Venditti of Greenpeace. "Developed countries like Britain are fuelling this drive for cheap timber, providing the financial incentives for companies to illegally and destructively log the world's last ancient forests. Tony Blair and other EU leaders must immediately implement legislation to ban the import of illegal timber into Europe and ensure that all timber product imports are from legal and responsibly managed forests."

Indonesia and the EU are currently negotiating a voluntary partnership agreement which is meant to ensure only legal and sustainable timber from Indonesia can enter Europe. However, VPA's will not address the problem of illegally logged timber being 'laundered' through third party countries, such as China.

The report also reveals that the world's forests cannot sustain China's escalating demand coupled with current consumption patterns in developed countries. In the last 10 years alone China's exports of wood products to developed countries increased by 350%. Greenpeace warns that if China were to increase its per capita paper consumption to that of the USA, for example, this would require nearly 1.6 billion additional cubic metres of wood to be logged - equivalent to the Earth's entire yearly harvest.

The report applauds some international buyers for starting to address the issue of illegal logging. Recently a number of companies in Europe have committed to stop purchasing Chinese plywood made from illegally logged timber from Papua New Guinea. These include Wolseley (UK), PontMeyer (Netherlands), Castorama (France) and the French Federation of Timber Importers (Le Commerce du Bois). Governments, however, are lagging.

Notes

The Paradise Forests stretch from South East Asia, across the islands of Indonesia and on towards Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in the Pacific.

For more information and pictures contact Greenpeace on 0207 865 8255.