The volume of illegal timber traded between Myanmar and China in the last 6 months has encountered a downturn, as the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reports. The agency’s report in September 2015 showed that via the land border between Myanmar’s Kachin State and China’s Yunnan Province there were illegal trades of logs. These trades reached 900,000 m3 of wood in 2014, worth almost half a billion dollars.
“The sharp fall in timber volumes being smuggled into China provides a much-needed breathing space for the precious forests of Myanmar,” said EIA Forest Campaign Leader Faith Doherty in a statement.
One year ago, EIA documented long lines of trucks queuing to carry valuable logs across the border. This year only small amounts of precious woods are being smuggled via backroads on motorbikes or passenger vehicles. At the N’bapa-Banling unofficial crossing, controlled by a major syndicate called BDYA and one of the busiest routes last year, the trade has come to a virtual halt. Further north at the Kambaiti-Houqiao official border point, the same situation was observed.
A combination of factors is likely responsible for the timber smuggling slowdown. Respectively, the huge volumes of timber which flowed across the border over the past few years created a glut in the market, especially in valuable rosewood species, the price of which had fallen. Other contributory factors include the economic slowdown in China and Myanmar’s General Election last November, as the EIA reported.
Still, without formal measures to permanently halt timber trade across the border it could quickly resume once the log piles on the Chinese side of the border dwindle and timber prices rise again due to scarcity.
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