Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

About 20 pct of EU timber illegal or suspect -report
22 Jul 2008 00:01:14 GMT
 Source: Reuters
BRUSSELS, July 22 (Reuters) - Nearly a fifth of wood imported into the European Union has been harvested illegally or comes from suspect sources, mostly in Russia, Indonesia and China, according to a report by environmental group WWF.

In all, 40 percent of wood-based products from southeast Asia, 30 percent from Latin America and over 36 percent of those from Africa originated from illegal or suspect sources, said the report on 2006 imports.

Major importers were Finland, Britain, Germany and Italy, it added.

"Illegal logging destroys the protective function of forests, increasing risk of natural disasters such as floods and landslides, and leads to deforestation, one of the main causes for climate change," said WWF forestry campaigner Anke Schulmeister.

The report said illegal timber hit local economies by pushing down timber prices, and called for tough EU action to clamp down on the trade.

The EU's executive body will adopt proposals in September aimed at curbing the trade by demanding certificates proving timber imported into the EU is legally harvested.

The WWF report said the main trader was Russia with 10.4 million cubic metres of illegal or suspicious wood transferred to EU countries in 2006, almost half of it via processing plants in Finland. (Reporting by Pete Harrison; Editing by Catherine Evans)


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

NGO latest

•  CHRISTIAN AID DIRECTOR AWARDED OBE FOR SERVICES TO DEVELOPMENT
Christian Aid - UK

•  EU Mediterranean Summit: MSF calls on all participants to improve the conditions for migrants arriving on the southern shores of Europe
MSF International

•  G-8 NGO Platform Network Reaction to the 2008 G-8 Summit Final Communiqué
InterAction - USA

•  Statement -- G8 Nations Must Be Accountable for All Commitments
InterAction - USA

•  Statement - G8 Nations Must Be Accountable for Commitments Made But Not Delivered
InterAction - USA

MORE >>

Latest news

•  About 20 pct of EU timber illegal or suspect -report

•  56 people trapped in China coal mine - report

•  Talks fail to end Thai-Cambodia temple row

•  British study links IMF loans to tuberculosis

•  Britain must set deadline to close dirty power plants

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Related articles

Breaking stories
 About 20 pct of EU timber illegal or suspect -report (1 minute ago)

56 people trapped in China coal mine - report (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 How can aid agencies tackle corruption? (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 CHRISTIAN AID DIRECTOR AWARDED OBE FOR SERVICES TO DEVELOPMENT (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Media power and responsibility (1 minute ago)

Maps
 Typhoon Kalmaegi (1 minute ago)


Country information

Facts & figures
United Kingdom Germany Finland China Russia Italy Indonesia

Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-07-21T093820Z_01_JAK05_RTRIDSP_2_MINING-SULPHUR-INDONESIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/JAK05.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-07-21T093619Z_01_JAK01_RTRIDSP_2_MINING-SULPHUR-INDONESIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/JAK01.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-07-20T072012Z_01_PEK120_RTRIDSP_2_OLYMPICS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PEK120.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-07-20T070817Z_01_PEK105_RTRIDSP_2_OLYMPICS-MEASURES_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PEK105.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-07-20T054805Z_01_DBG200_RTRIDSP_2_OLYMPICS-PROTESTS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DBG200.htm

A miner puts his baskets of sulphur in a local market near the volcanic Kawah Ijen lake in Indonesia's East Java province June 25, 2008. Ed Davies, Reuters' deputy bureau chief ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Tue Jul 22 00:03:32 2008