Chinese smugglers are a rising threat

An increasing number of Chinese nationals are entering Myanmar to smuggle timber back to their country as border officials on both sides step up efforts to levy taxes on the legal trade in wooden products and Myanmar attempts to implement its ban on the export of raw logs, according to the Ministry Environmental Conservation and Forestry.

It said the criminal activity had been rising over the past two years, and that it had accelerated this year. “Smuggling of timber is worse this year, and China is the major destination,” a ministry official said.

Rosewood species such as tamalan are fetching between Ks 8-10 million (US$8,000 to $1,000) per tonne in China, officials have said. The rare hardwood is used there to make reproduction Qing and Ming dynasty furniture, according to the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency, which said earlier this year that rosewood could be logged to extinction in Myanmar within three years, as it almost has been in three other countries neighbouring China: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Authorities in the north and other areas of Myanmar seized more than 5,000 tonnes of tamalan between April 1 and the end of June, the first quarter of this fiscal year.

Thousands of tonnes of teak and other species of hardwood were also seized in the quarter, officials said.

About 100 Chinese citizens caught smuggling timber and other natural resources have been arrested. They were fined under forestry laws and deported.

A forestry analyst said that hundreds of thousands of tonnes could have been smuggled to China, and that penalties are too lax. The organised criminal activity continues because the Chinese smugglers are fined and released, rather than jailed, he said.

Officials also seized more than 4,500 tonnes of teak, more than 1,600 tonnes of ironwood and more than 10,000 tonnes of other types of hardwood during the quarter, according to data from the ministry.

Authorities arrested 2,027 Myanmar citizens as well as the Chinese nationals for alleged involvement in the smuggling during the quarter. Moreover, 785 vehicles, 103 circular saws, 71 tractors, 70 motorboats, 63 motorcycles, two excavators and two cranes were also seized, officials said.