Laos cracks down on illegal trade in timber
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Finance Minister Phouphet Khamphounvong has ordered a government crackdown on illegal wood exports, aiming to ensure that all revenues from timber flow to the national budget.
Under the new instructions, the state asset authorities are assigned to work in cooperation with relevant sectors to inspect vehicles carrying timber to sawmills.
Meanwhile, wood exports must be permitted only at international border checkpoints.
Before exporting timber or wood products, exporters in Laos must have contracts with foreign companies and payment systems must be made through banks in Laos.
“If exporters do not follow this system, they will not be allowed to export the timber or wood from Laos,” says the instruction.
Laos was once among the world’s most forested nations, with 70 per cent tree cover (17 million hectares) in 1940.
As of 2010, that figure stood somewhere around the 40 per cent mark, with the majority of large trees having disappeared from many areas, including forest reserves, sparking concerns about sustainability.
Illegal logging is believed to supply the timber used to manufacture about one-fifth of the world’s wooden products.
The highest levels of illegal logging are found in developing and emerging market countries.
Estimates suggest that illegal logging costs timber-producing countries some 10-15 billion euros (Bt404.5 billion to Bt606 billion) per year in lost revenues.
