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Regional windows
East & Southeast Asia
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The impact of China on Southeast Asian forests
Forests of Southeast Asia have been steadily depleted by the growing demand for wood in China
| Author(s): | Lang, G. and Chan, C. |
| Organization: | Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Region(s) of Coverage: | East & Southeast Asia |
| Themes: |
Agriculture, Environment and Climate Change, Poverty & Inequality, Governance, International Affairs, Domestic Resource Mobilization, Macroeconomics and Economic Growth, Water, Globalization and Trade
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| Last Updated: | Tuesday, 3 August 2010 |
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Overview
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Read This Document
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Papers by Same Organization
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From the point of view of life on earth, forests are the planet’s second most important resource after oceans. They regulate climate, control water cycles, shelter most land-based animals, etc. But forests continue to decline toward local and regional crisis-levels even though their importance is well-known to scientists and environmentalists.
Most developed societies have stabilized their forests. The most rapid declines are in developing countries, where rural population growth leads to the clearing of forests for agriculture and cooking fuel. The weaker capacity to regulate, monitor, and enforce forest management is compounded by corruption, which is related to poverty and regimes of exploitative governance.
In this paper the author employs the example of the 1998 logging ban in China and its impact on the exploitation of Southeast Asian forests for the china market including legal and illegal logging. The author documents these effects with some data on forest trade between China and Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia). In these countries:
- forests are already being rapidly depleted
- state capacity in regard to monitoring and control is often weak
- control is heavily compromised by corruption
The author converses that the declines in timber production in China did not result from a decrease in demand for timber, yet it resulted in an increases in China’s importing of forestry products and a rise in prices. He explains that China imports forest-products from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines, but that the largest imports from Southeast Asia come from Indonesia. In some of these countries, the governments do little to effectively prohibit illegal logging and trading.
In order to control the depletion of tropical forests in Southeast Asia, the author pinpoints the policy options regarding:
- the exporting/importing countries
- MNCs and retailers
- consumers
- international organizations
The paper resulted in the following findings:
- the logging ban in China in 1998 resulted in an increase in exports of forest products from Southeast Asia to China
- China has managed to implement a fairly effective regime of monitoring and control in regard to internal production
- profits from supplying the China market are high, and are sufficient to provide jobs for locals
- any action by the Chinese government to address this problem would make imported wood more expensive
The author recommends that China could actually contribute to solutions in Southeast Asia by a program of aiding developing countries to establish better infrastructures of planning, monitoring, and control.
Finally, the author stipulates that despite the outstanding efforts of NGOs to document the problem, the warnings of forestry experts, and the discussions among senior officials in a number of countries, there is nothing currently under way which seems likely to halt the destruction of the remaining tropical natural forests of Southeast Asia.
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| Citizens and elections in non-crisis conditions: The case of Malaysia |
| By Case, W., 2009 |
| Produced by: Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) |
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| Countries: Malaysia |
| Themes: Macroeconomics and Economic Growth |
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