China’s annual timber imports from Myanmar more than tripled between 1997 and 2002, due to restrictions on domestic logging and improvements in timber processing. This increase has provided income-generating opportunities for many people, including villagers in China and Myanmar and Chinese migrant business people. However, this trade is unsustainable as Myanmar’s forests are quickly being depleted. 

Research by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and Forest Trends, USA, reviews the recent trends of the forest product trade between China and Myanmar. Although recent forestry policies have enabled China to promote sustainable forestry at home, the reduction of tariffs for imported wood has had negative impacts on the sustainability of forest harvesting in neighbouring countries, including Myanmar. The increasing rate of forest harvesting in Myanmar is causing serious environmental damage.

The research shows:

• The timber industry along China’s border with Myanmar grew substantially after China imposed limits on domestic logging in 1998.
• Nearly 90 percent of China’s imports of Myanmar forest products are shipped across the border into China’s Yunnan Province, and then on to timber companies on China’s eastern seaboard.
• Forests in Myanmar’s northern Kachin and Shan States are being rapidly depleted without any reforestation; lack of resources will ultimately bust the current boom in forest trade.
• The timber industry along the border is dominated by migrant workers and business people from Fujian, Sichuan, and Guangdong Provinces; border prefectures in northwest Yunnan Province are highly vulnerable to swings in the forest trade.

So far, efforts to reduce unsustainable logging practices in the region have focused on controlling demand and encouraging supply in China. However, a large amount of high-value timber products from Myanmar are used for re-export to international markets for finished wood products, rather than to meet domestic demand. Controlling domestic demand in China may not be enough to reduce unsustainable forestry from Myanmar.

There are three major challenges for long-term forestry in the region. A predicted decline in forest trade means that people living on the border between the countries must move away from a reliance on the timber industry. This will require training for border populations in new occupations. Negative environmental impacts from the industry will only be solved by a reduction in logging, but there is also a need to assess existing damage and identify potential measures to repair this. Finally, China’s growing economy will depend on a stable supply of timber. State and smallholder plantations will need expanding to provide this and reduce China’s dependency on imports.

The research identifies three priorities for Chinese forestry agencies, international forestry organisations and donors:

• Helping people living on the Yunnan-Myanmar border to develop new income activities and end their reliance on the timber industry.
• Assessing and taking action to mitigate the cross-border ecological damage from the timber industry.
• Developing a more sustainable supply of timber in China through state plantations and collective forest management.

Source(s):
‘An overview of the market chain for China’s timber product imports from Myanmar’, Forest Trends: Washington, by Fredrich Kahrl, Horst Weyerhaeuser and Su Yufang, 2005 Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development (DFID)

id21 Research Highlight: 18 November 2005

Further Information:
Horst Weyerhaeuser
World Agroforestry Centre
c/o Kunming Institute of Botany
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Heilongtan, 650204
China

Tel: +86 871 5223014
Fax: +86 871 5216350
Contact the contributor: horst@loxinfo.co.th

Forest Trends, USA

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

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'Private sector involvement in China’s forests: sustainable forestry?'

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