Forests

Scorched earth: planations in Indonesia owned partly by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP)

Man is destroying the world’s forests. A staggering 80 per cent have already been either destroyed or degraded, and half of that has been in the last 30 years.

Countless species face extinction and entire communities are being displaced.

We believe this destruction can be stopped.

What role does China play in this?

The most important areas to protect because of biodiversity are intact forests – areas of forest that are not cut into by man-made structures such as roads, settlements, pipelines and powerlines.

Greenpeace has made a world map of intact forests. See it here. 

China only has a small area of intact forests left -- less than 2 percent of its forests -- and these are mostly in Tibet, Yunnan province and some areas in the northeast of the country.

Only 0.1 percent of these intact forests are properly protected.

The biggest threat to China’s remaining natural forests and forestland is from paper plantations in Hainan, Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. 

Indigenous trees in Yunnan and Hainan provinces are felled to make way for eucalyptus plantations which are used to make pulp for paper.

One of the biggest culprits is APP a subsidiary of Indonesian paper giant Sinar Mas Group which has plantations in several Chinese provinces including Hainan and Yunnan.

Many of these forests are protected but these companies still manage to illegally clear the natural forest and convert them to plantations.

The timber trade

China also plays a key role in the destruction of ancient forests in other parts of the world, particularly the Paradise Forests of Southeast Asia.

According to the UN, China is now the world’s second largest consumer and importer of wood products.

China is also the world's biggest plywood exporter.

Because China has fairly tough laws protecting its own forests most of its timber for export and domestic use has to be imported.

Many of the wood importing companies cannot prove their timber comes from legal sources.

Many timber traders process their goods through China first as a means to launder their "illegal" trade.