world news - 18.05.2007
China needs "responsible" timber choice--Greenpeace
Greenpeace called on China's large DIY retailers on Thursday to adopt
"responsible" timber-sourcing policies to allow the country's growing
ranks of home renovators to buy legally imported wood. The
environmental group's China office said foreign and local DIY operators
were selling illegally imported timber from forests in Southeast Asia,
Africa and Brazil, and providing consumers with no way of checking
their origins. "In most cases, Chinese consumers in this market
have no way of distinguishing legal timber products from illegal ones,"
Liu Shangwen, Greenpeace forestry project director, told a news
conference. "Only through adopting environmentally friendly
sourcing policies can companies win a high standing in the eyes of
their consumers," Liu said. Greenpeace said last month China
should take responsibility for illegal hardwood logging in Southeast
Asia, which supplied the raw materials for Chinese exports to the West.
China's state-run companies have been accused of indiscriminate logging
in virgin rainforests and its energy and mining companies of propping
up dictatorial regimes across Africa in return for access to oil, gas
and minerals. But China has dismissed the allegations and says
countries such as the United States and Japan that buy its timber
products are equally responsible for the world's dwindling forests.
"Forestry trade is part of international trade," Thursday's China Daily
quoted forestry ministry spokesman Cao Qingyao as saying. "Both producing and importing countries should strengthen administration and supervision," Cao said.
Greenpeace said responsible timber sourcing was "critical" in China,
where rapid urbanisation and soaring home ownership posed a threat to
global forest reserves that were home to thousands of species and a
buffer against climate change. "China will add some 6 billion sq metres of space for renovation between 2005 and 2010," Liu said.
"This is not just a development opportunity. Rather, it should be the
start of responsibility as far as global forestry resources are
concerned." Newly affluent Chinese consumers bought about 45
billion yuan ($5.8 billion) worth of wooden floor boards in 2005, up 18
percent the year before, Greenpeace said, citing a Chinese timber
industry association's figures. With growth in the DIY market
projected at 12 percent a year, DIY retailers, which had grown from a
single store in 1995 to over 115 in 2005, needed to do more, the group
said.
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