News
Traders defy the law to import more teak into the USA from Myanmar than before the coup
Despite sanctions put in place against the brutal military junta in Myanmar, US traders continue to source precious teak from the country for luxury yachts and flooring. The allegations are made in the new EIA report Acts of Defiance – How US traders are ignoring sanctions to import ...
India Should Exercise Caution Over Myanmar Timber Imports
The confusion over Myanmar timber exports to India was laid to rest last month when the central government in New Delhi informed the Indian border state of Mizoram that timber was not on the restricted list of commodities from Myanmar. New Delhi’s directive was in response to a ...
RAJEEV BHATTACHARYYA
Warning of ecological disaster over Malaysia forest plantations
When Sia Beng Hok goes to check his rubber and batai (Moluccan albizia) trees, he makes sure he has a rifle on the backseat of his four-wheel drive. His plantations – all 5,000 hectares (19sq miles) of them – sit on forest reserve land in Kelantan ...
Yao-Hua Law
Myanmar Timber Exports Continue, Despite Western Sanctions: Report
Myanmar’s military junta exported more than $37 million worth of timber to nations with active sanctions on the country’s state-run timber monopoly, according to the environmental advocacy group Forest Trends. In a report released yesterday, the U.S.-based organization examined the impact of sanctions imposed since the ...
Sebastian Strangio
‘Thousands of trees’ burned and logged in Cambodia: Q&A with filmmaker Sean Gallagher
In January 2020, filmmaker Sean Gallagher traveled to Cambodia with a camera, drone, and a mission: to create a film revealing the impacts of deforestation. Riding on the backs of motorbikes driven by local activists, Gallagher spent several weeks venturing deep into protected forests in ...
Elizabeth Claire Alberts
Where does the Greater Mekong’s illegal timber go?
After forests are logged, felled trees are typically sent to sawmills, where they’re processed into boards, or lumber. It’s in this processed form that wood typically enters the international commodity supply chain. But not all lumber is created equal. In the Greater Mekong region, high-quality hardwoods ...
Sheryl Lee Tian Tong
Prime Minister joins tree plantation drive
Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh joined students at the Faculty of Architecture, Lao National University, to plant 90 rosewood trees to mark National Arbour Day on June 1. This is a part of the government’s plans to plant 35 million trees over 36,950 hectares this year and ...
Times Reporter
Andaman forests need longer intervals between repeat logging for recovery: study
To the untrained eye discerning between evergreen and deciduous tree mosaics of the Andaman archipelago can be tough in the wet season but the patches clearly stand out in the dry season in the volcanic ridge-arc islands. In the dry season between January and April, ...
Sahana Ghosh
Firm to plant 10M eucalyptus trees in Kratie, Stung Treng
Think Biotech (Cambodia) Co Ltd plans to plant 10 million eucalyptus trees on nearly 10,000ha in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces from May to August this year and is also looking for partners to plant more trees, according to the company’s report seen by the ...
Orm Bunthoeurn
‘Drastic forest development’: Vietnam to plant 1 billion trees — but how?
In October and November of 2020, a relentless barrage of nine typhoons and tropical storms slammed into Vietnam, setting off record floods and countless landslides. Nearly 200 people died, and property damage was estimated at $1.5 billion. Then-Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc responded on Nov. 10 ...
Michael Tatarski