China Demand Driving Endangered Tree To Extinction

WOOD PILE

Merbau timber from Indonesia stored at the Yuzhou Wood Market on the banks of the River Pearl, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. Photo courtesy Greenpeace.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) April 17, 2007
Chinese demand for an endangered tropical hardwood tree used to make luxury flooring is driving it to extinction, Greenpeace said Tuesday. China imported about 60,000 cubic metres (2.1 million cubic feet) of merbau logs in 2006, most of it smuggled from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, the environmental group said in a report.

The wood was used mostly to produce high-end hardwood flooring for the domestic market and exports to the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe, it said.

"This is a highly prized species for luxury goods and the market demand in China as well as in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific is driving merbau to extinction," said Tamara Stark, a forest expert with Greenpeace.

Unprecedented economic growth, coupled with a shortage of domestic forest resources, had seen China become the world's largest importer of tropical logs including merbau, the report said.

China also had the world's second-largest wood manufacturing sector after the US, it said.

The Greenpeace investigation showed Chinese importers used sophisticated methods such as forging import documents as prices of merbau soared to more than 600 dollars per cubic metre.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

WOOD PILE

Greenpeace Spotlights Rainforest Damage In DRC

Paris (AFP) April 11, 2007
Environmental group Greenpeace called for urgent action on Wednesday to prevent illegal logging in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, urging the World Bank to do more to combat the problem. "In a context of corruption and poor governance in the DRC, the World Bank's attempts to reform the forestry sector are currently failing to control the expansion of logging," Greenpeace said in a report.

AEROSPACE Nondestructive Testing Keeps Bagram Aircraft Flying New FAA Oceanic Air Traffic System Designed By Lockheed Martin Fully Operational NASA Seeks New Research Proposals Germans Urged To Give Foreign Travel A Rest To Curb Global Warming	CAR TECH Driverless Car Goes On Show In London Made In USA Losing Cachet Technique Creates Metal Memory And Could Lead To Vanishing Dents Toyota Anticipates Sharp Increase In Its Hybrid Sales
MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS Raytheon To Supply Canada With Enhanced Position Location Reporting System Terminals Intelsat To Test Internet Routing In Space For The US Military Northrop Grumman And LockMart Team Up For Integrated Air And Missile Defense Battle Command Harris Donates OS/COMET For Use In FalconSAT Program	MISSILE DEFENSE Czech MPs Visit US Radar Base Earmarked For Missile Shield Oslo Clash On ABM Raytheon Receives Contracts For Patriot Missile Facility Support Russia Targets Counteroffensive Against ABM
FARM NEWS Winter Flounder On The Fast Track To Recovery Satellite Images Aid Implementation Of Agricultural Reforms Farmland Across China At Risk From Pollution Anthropologist Finds Earliest Evidence Of Maize Farming In Mexico	DISASTER MANAGEMENT Wireless Sensors Limit Earthquake Damage Tsunami Emergency In Solomons Declared Over DigitalGlobe And GeoEye Partner With The USGS In Support Of International Charter Philippine Survivors Left Feeling Forgotten
TECH SPACE A New Generation Of Space Tethers Rolls-Royce Selects Bristol University For Composites Research Tests Demonstrate Functionality Of Next Generation Processor Router For TSAT Sri Lanka Tigers Deny Using Satellite Illegally	ROBO SPACE Boeing Orbital Express Conducts Autonomous Spacecraft-to-Spacecraft Fluid and Component Transfer Top Robotics Teams To Rack And Roll Atlanta Georgia Dome Assistive Robot Adapts To People And New Places Flexible Electronics Could Find Applications As Sensors And Artificial Muscles

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement