Exports of logs double in 2016
DESPITE a ban on the export of timber to Vietnam and the creation of a much-publicised anti-logging task force, Cambodia last year still exported nearly $33 million dollars’ worth of unprocessed logs to its eastern neighbour, a volume more than double that of 2015, according to Vietnamese customs data.
The figures, collected by US NGO Forest Trends, reveal that in 2016 Vietnam imported 139,306 cubic metres of logs from Cambodia, a sharp rise from 59,292 cubic metres in 2015 and just 460 in 2014.
The imports saw a staggering spike in November and December of last year. Of the total volume of logs, which was valued at $32.86 million, 56 percent was received by Vietnam in November and December, with 43 percent in the latter month alone.
The figures further call into question the government’s claims it had put an end to mass logging after instituting a ban on timber exports to Vietnam in January 2016 and creating a task force to crack down on smugglers led by military police chief Sao Sokha – who has himself been linked to illegal logging in the past.
Along with unprocessed logs, the export of which was supposedly made illegal more than two decades ago, trade in more lucrative sawn wood also continued last year, though in far smaller quantities than in 2015.
In 2016 Cambodia exported just over 171,000 cubic metres of sawn wood to CONTINUED
– PAGE 6