Revenue gain not equal to forestry losses: Govt
Even though more than US$100 million has been generated in national revenue from the timber industry over the past 10 years, this is insufficient to compensate for the loss of the country’s forestry resources. Forestry officials said losses in revenue from the timber industry were triggered by several factors including past timber exports mainly being in the form of raw timber or partially processed logs, meaning value had not been added through processing the wood. Another factor was corruption on the part of officials and illegal logging, which resulted in a decline in forestry over the past years. Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office and Government Spokesman, Dr Chaleun Yiapaoher, expressed regret over what the country had lost over the past decade when speaking to the media recently.
