China demand for luxury furniture 'decimating rosewood'

 Runaway Chinese demand for luxury furniture is spurring illegallogging across Southeast Asia, stripping the region of precious Siamese rosewoodand driving a chain of cross-border corruption and violence, environmentalists saidMonday.Increasing wealth in China has seen a surge in sales of consumer status symbols such as reproductions of ornate high-end furniture from the Ming and Qing eras.The demand for so-called "hongmu" furniture has seen stocks of Siamese rosewooddecimated across the Mekong area -- Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar andThailand -- according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency, an independent campaign group.Forests have been denuded by rampant illegal logging by gangs keen for a cut of the lucrative Chinese market, which since 2000 has imported an estimated $2.4billion worth of precious timber from the Mekong area.Rosewood can fetch thousands of dollars per cubic metre and loggers can earnhundreds of dollars for their efforts, many times greater than the average salary inthe poor village areas they are drawn from."The soaring value of Siamese rosewood has spurred a dramatic rise in illegallogging in an international criminal trade increasingly characterised by obsceneprofits, violence, fatal shootings and widespread corruption at every level," said EIAcampaigner Faith Doherty."The consequences for Thailand -- both environmental and social -- are very serious.Unless swift and decisive action is taken to stem this bloody trade, we could well belooking at the extinction of Siamese rosewood in a matter of a very few years."The EIA called for international rules to be tightened to ban international trade inSiamese rosewood logs, sawn timber and veneers.Violence and corruption has proliferated along a criminal trail that spans severalnations as loggers and agents exploit loopholes in local and internationalconservation laws meant to protect the rare species.In Thailand's forested eastern border area with Cambodia, villagers from across thefrontier regularly clash with Thai security forces."When loggers are confronted by enforcement officers, violence often ensues," saidan EIA report entitled "Route of Extinction", adding that since 2009 dozens of Thaiforest rangers have been killed."The money on offer to impoverished rural communities from traders lures a streamof people willing to undertake potentially lethal work," it said.In March Cambodia accused Thai troops of killing 15 villagers in two clashes, afterthey illegally crossed the border to log valuable timber. Thai forces allegedly shot dead at least 69 Cambodian loggers in 2013.The EIA urged China to do more to regulate the industry and curb demand."China has made some attempts to counter the appalling excess of the illegal trade in Siamese rosewood, but they are clearly nowhere near enough," said Doherty.The report called on nations with remaining natural stocks of the trees to boostenforcement, crack down on official corruption which helps smugglers transportfelled logs from forests, and ensure seized inventory is not repackaged and sold oninto the legal market.