Malaysia is believed to have lost between RM800mil and RM900mil a year to illegal logging, said Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Paul Low.
Saying this was the estimated worth of illegal logs going out of the country, Low added that he believed illegal logging was still “pretty much under control” in Peninsular Malaysia and that more attention needed to be paid to Sabah and Sarawak.
THE House of Representatives has passed on third and final reading a proposed law imposing life imprisonment to people engaged in illegal logging.
Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said the measure would strengthen government’s campaign against illegal loggers which is now causing serious flooding in the country, recently in Northern Mindanao.
New regulations banning sale of illegal timber in consumer countries will force companies to move away from business-as-usual practices, part of a two-pronged approach to ensure the sustainability of supply for wood products.
The latest brochure in EFI’s Making a Difference: From Science to Policy series is now available! It focuses on EFI’s work coordinating the EUTR Support Study project, which investigated the most effective ways of meeting various requirements of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR).
IT will be interesting to see whether Malaysia will finally decide to support the European Union's (EU) new timber regulation that will come into force in January next year.
Despite 2012 being the deadline year, judging by the snail's pace Malaysia is taking to sign the bilateral voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) with the EU on its Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, the accord might not even take place after all.
A recent investigation into illegal logging in Hamlet No. 3, Tra Ka Commune in Bac Tra My found that road had been constructed over the course of a year.
Illegal gold exploitation and forest logging
Reporters managed to access the loggers’ camp and discovered that precious trees, including White Seraya, ironwood, and East India Butter Tree, had been chopped down.
The town of Ayun, home to 16,000 people in the Chitral district of Pakistan, has been rocked by large-scale protests and mass arrests over the issue of corruption and deforestation in recent days. Villagers are protesting forest destruction in the Kalasha Valleys, the home of the indigenous Kalash people.
Brazil, which last week moved to reform its Forest Code, may find lessons in Russia's revision of its forest law in 2007, say a pair of Russian scientists.
A new documentary film follows investigators from the Environmental Investigation Agency on a dangerous mission to uncover the stages of the illicit timber trade in Vietnam and Laos.
