Western demand for Chinese furniture has fuelled a increase of more than threefold in China's wood imports, and illegal timber from Russia's vast forests is helping to sustain the industry, a United Nations agency said on Tuesday. In a report on China's influence on the timber market, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said that the Russian Far East represented the major source of raw materials for the Chinese industry, which has also become the world's leading exporter of forest products.
"China's own forests meet only a small part of its industrial roundwood appetite, with the result that China is now the world's number one importer of logs, both softwood and roundwood," said the UNECE, whose research focuses largely on Europe's former communist bloc.
"Russia is the main source of softwood logs, supplying about 70 percent of China's needs. A small part of China's imports is of certified origin but it does seem that a significant share may be from illegal sources."
China imported 232.6 million cubic tonnes of timber in 2005, an increase of 233 percent compared with the 1997 figure, the agency said. It did not provide an estimate for illegal imports.
Environmental campaigners increasingly pointed to the impact of Chinese demand on Russia's vast forests, and local authorities in the Russian Far East have moved to crack down on illegal logging.
China's wood product exports have increased by 360 percent since 1997, and were worth a total of 16.4 billion dollars in 2005, said the UNECE.
The vast majority of the exports are made up of furniture, and China is now the top supplier for the United States, it said.
Chinese-made furniture also accounts for one third of the European market, said the UNECE.
Rising living standards in China mean that domestic consumers purchase around 75 percent of total production, it said.
earlier related report
No Timber Procurement By China In Russia
