China's Wood Appetite Degrading World Forests

China consumes more than 14.1 billion cubic feet of timber each year to feed its export and domestic demand for wood products, leading the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Wood Trends to label it the "wood workshop of the world," according to an analysis from researcher William Laurance posted at Yale Environment 360, a publication of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Although forest cover in China, including large areas of timber plantations, increased from 157 million hectares in 1990 to 197 million hectares in 2005, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, but, paradoxically, environmentalists now criticize China, saying it is degrading the world's forests in its search for wood, being too "aggressive in pursuing timber supplies globally, while generally being little concerned with social equity or environmental sustainability," according to Laurance. The article points out that China is now overwhelmingly the biggest global consumer of tropical timber, importing around 40 to 45 million cubic meters of timber annually. Today, more than half of all timber being shipped anywhere in the world is destined for China.

Laurance pointed out that China primarily buys raw logs, which are the least economically beneficial for exporting nations. He provided an example of merbau (Intsia bijuga) that yields about $11 for local communities where it is harvested but fetches $240 when it is delivered to manufacturers in China, "who profit further by converting it into prized wood flooring." To top it off, China has few safeguards against illegal logging, "which is an enormous problem in many developing nations."

The entire analysis can be read here.