Timber smuggling in Laos
1st August 2011
The Vietnamese army is allegedly playing a key role in smuggling wood from the jungles of Laos
Undercover filming by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has unearthed evidence of military involvement in the illegal timber trade.
Hanoi denied the claims by the EIA which said its undercover operations revealed one of Laos' biggest logger companies to be owned by the Vietnamese military.
Although Laos has some of the Mekong region's last intact tropical forest, its export ban on raw timber is “routinely flouted on a massive scale” to feed “ravenous” industries in Vietnam, China and Thailand, the EIA said.
The Agency also said that“widespread” corruption in the Laos government's forestry officials has enabled the smuggling of 500,00 cubic metres (£92 million) across the Vietnamese border each year.
Nguyen Phuong Nga, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry in Hanoi, said "There is no smuggling of timber or logging from Laos by the Vietnamese army.”
“All illegal logging and smuggling of timber will be strictly dealt with according to Vietnamese law.”
Julian Newman, campaigns director of the EIA, said it was ironic that Vietnam “recognises the need to protect its own forests while it is taking indiscriminately from next door.”
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