TRAFFIC report highlights Chinese improvement

The development of standards and front-line enforcement aids have helped the ongoing efforts to keep the timber trade in China legal, TRAFFIC has claimed.

The WWF’s trade monitoring arm said that initiatives such as the establishment of timber sourcing standards through the Global Forest Trade Network and the publishing of its own Chinese-language Identification Manual for Timber Im-ported from the Russian Far East had helped Chinese buyers avoid wood and wood products from illegal sources.

The assertion was made in TRAFFIC’s annual State of Wildlife Trade in China report, which also noted that around 20% of the timber imported to China from Russian states is illegally logged, equating to around four million m³ of logs per year.