Myanmar makes record seizures of illegal timber

Myanmar seized a record amount of illegal timber this financial year as part of a government clampdown to protect the country's rapidly disappearing forests, a senior official said on Wednesday. Forest ministry director Tin Tun said authorities had confiscated 40,000 tonnes of timber since April 2016, months before the newly elected government issued a nationwide ban on logging.
"There has been illegal trade in timber in Myanmar from the junta era to the present day, so we can't say that the illegal trade has peaked this year," he told AFP. "But we can say that by tonnage, we seized the highest amount of timber ever this financial year." Seizures were highest in northern Kachin state which borders China, the world's top importer of illegal timber whose insatiable appetite for rare trees such as teak and rosewood has ravaged Myanmar's vast forests.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency estimates some $2.7 billion worth of timber crossed the border between 2000-14. Logging exploded under the former military government as the generals plundered the country's vast natural resources to line their own pockets. Myanmar's forests are disappearing at the third-fastest rate in the world, behind only Brazil and Indonesia, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. Between 1990 and 2010 the agency said the country lost almost 20 percent of its forest cover.