The environmental watchdog has issued the warning in a report calling on the Myanmar government to seek protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for the rosewood species most at risk of destruction.

EIA said that in the absence of laws prohibiting illegal timber in China, CITES "presents the most immediate and effective mechanism to secure China's respect for Myanmar's trade and forestry laws".

Trees known generically as rosewood are being illegally logged in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to feed a multi-million dollar market in China for luxury timber known there as 'Hongmu'.

The timber is used to make reproduction Qing and Ming dynasty furniture, EIA says in the report, 'Myanmar's rosewood crisis: Why key species and forests must be protected through CITES'.

The two Hongmu species in Myanmar most at risk are tamalan (Dalbergia oliveri/bariensis) and padauk (Pterocarpus macrocarpus), warns the report, released early this month.

It urges that Myanmar seek protection under CITES Appendix III to ensure that trade is in line with the sustainable harvesting of valuable hardwoods.

A 1998 Dutch study proposed that tamalan be protected under a CITES Appendix II listing, which regulates the trade in threatened species through logging permits and agreed quotas, but the proposal was apparently overlooked by the then Myanmar government.

In the report, EIA said China has virtually no rosewood stocks of its own and is almost totally reliant on imports for its booming Hongmu industry.

The report said Hongmu imports to China soared by 52 percent in 2013, with timber from Southeast Asia comprising 65 percent of the total.

The trade data shows that China's Hongmu industry "clearly has Myanmar's forests in its sights," EIA said. Between 2000 and 2013, China imported 624,000 cubic metres (about 816,000 cubic yards) of Hongmu logs worth US$737 million (about K717.8 billion) from Myanmar.

"Incredibly, nearly a third of this trade volume and value occurred in the past year alone," the report said.

In 2013, China's total imports of Myanmar Hongmu logs by land and sea reached 237,000 cubic metres (about 310,000 cubic yards) worth $324 million, which EIA said is triple the volume and value of that recorded in 2012 and nearly six times the 2010.

"Signs of extreme growth are already showing for 2014," said the report, with the value of imports from Myanmar between January and April 2014 comprising more than 72 percent of the 2013 total and more than double trade in 2012.

"Virtually overnight, Myanmar has become the biggest Hongmu supplier to China worldwide, surpassing more traditional suppliers such as Vietnam and Laos," it said.

"Worryingly, $52 million of imports have occurred by land since Myanmar's national log export ban came into effect on April 1, 2014," the report said.

"Such exponential growth in demand raises the distinct likelihood that, without immediate and robust intervention, the very limited number of species of timber concerned will be consumed to commercial extinction in a relatively few years," EIA said.

The report said the trade figures show that Chinese demand for Hongmu is clearly driving illegal logging and timber smuggling in Myanmar.
 
"Government seizures of illegal rosewood timber species during law enforcement in Myanmar since 2008 have followed almost exactly the same pattern as imports of Hongmu logs into China's Yunnan Province," it said, adding that they had focused on

two specific species ? tamalan and padauk.

"Tamalan dominated recent seizures in March and April in Mandalay, where 500 cubic tons of tamalan and 57 cubic tons of padauk were confiscated, further confirming the species as major targets of Chinese demand.

"Such seizures are breaking records in Myanmar, where previously only up to 50 tons a year would be confiscated," it said, adding that illegal logging had also risen sharply in Sagaing Region, where tamalan densities are highest.

Of the 33 timber species listed on China's National Hongmu Standard in 2000, tamalan and padauk were among six found in Myanmar. The others are Burma blackwood (Dalbergia cultrate), Ceylon ebony (Diospyros ebenum), Burma thinwin (Millettia leucantha) and Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus).

The EIA report said tamalan and padauk are classified as “reserved” in Myanmar, meaning they can only be harvested and traded with specific permission from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Forestry.

Tamalan is also regarded an endangered species, with total estimated stocks of 1.6 million cubic metres. The highest densities of tamalan are in Sagaing Region and Shan State, with smaller numbers in Mandalay Region and Kachin State.

The report says padauk is heavily threatened by trade throughout its growing range, which includes Thailand, Cambodia (where it is protected), Vietnam and Laos, as well as Myanmar, where the highest density of the trees is in Shan State, followed by Magway, Mandalay and Sagaing regions.

The report says it is vital that Myanmar does all it can to ensure that China does not allow illegal redwoods into its territory from Myanmar.

"Until China prohibits illegal timber, CITES is the best opportunity to attain legal reciprocity with China," EIA says and it proposes a two-step procedure for Myanmar to adopt, including an immediate Appendix III listing as an emergency interim measure.

Appendix III protection regulates trade in threatened species and allows individual range states (countries) to unilaterally list stocks of domestic species as an emergency measure without the agreement of other parties.

The report recommended that the government follows such a move by seeking Appendix II protection at the next conference of the 170 countries that are parties to CITES, including Myanmar and China.

"The Government of Myanmar clearly has both the right and responsibility to seek CITES protection from rampant illegal and unsustainable trade with China for tamalan and padauk, preferably under Appendix II," the report said.

"Proposing the listing of domestic stocks of the two species under Appendix III immediately as an emergency interim measure prior to a wider Appendix II listing at the next conference of the parties would demonstrate the will of the government to protect its dwindling forests and precious genetic resources," it said.

Such a procedure would enable tamalan and padauk to be listed on Appendix III within four months, the report said, adding that "no imports of the species could then enter China without a CITES certificate".

The EIA's report is available at www.eia-international.org

This Article first appeared in the July 24, 2014 edition of Mizzima Business Weekly.