Western Demand For Furniture Fueling China's Timber Imports - AFP

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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.

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http://www.terradaily.com/2006/061010141926.z4u9sqa2.html