MR DENG’S ramshackle lumber yard on the edge of town offers a wide array of wood for sale. One species, however, is conspicuously absent. Asked whether he has any Siamese rosewood, he sends a lad off to retrieve one single foot-long chunk. Five years ago, says Mr Deng, rosewood was plentiful in the forests outside Lak Xao (a Lao town so small that its biggest restaurant is called, almost accurately, the Only One Restaurant). But then Chinese and Vietnamese businessmen started buying up trees by the lorryload. Today? “Finished,” he says.
On May 13th, hoping to save his country’s dwindling forests, Thongloun Sisoulith, the new prime minister of Laos, banned all timber exports. A government representative says environmental protection is among its top priorities. But a report to be published on June 24th by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an NGO, suggests the clampdown will not be implemented by local officials—and even if it is, may come too late to save Siamese rosewood from being eradicated in Laos and Cambodia.
Much like the trade in rhino horn and tiger skins, trade in rosewood is driven by demand from China’s...Continue reading
from Asia http://ift.tt/28SqK3o
EmoticonEmoticon