In the frontline of the EIA's (Environmental Investigation Agency) campaign against illegal logging in Myanmar is its forest campaign leader, Faith Doherty, who we last wrote about in SalvoNEWS in 2011.
 
Every year, hundreds of millions of pounds worth of timber is being stolen from forests within Myanmar and then smuggled over the border to China with the help of criminal networks and corrupt officials says the EIA. Deforestation is a major issue in Myanmar. The sheer volume of timber being transported across the border into China (despite a ban on such exports) is staggering. A huge driver of this activity is China's enormous wood processing industry. Timber from Myanmar is sold on to the furniture and construction industries with ease. But the clearing of land for the building of dams is also playing a huge part in the deforestation.
 
Currently, corruption amongst officials and border guards means that the criminal networks behind these operations are able to operate with impunity. But with such huge amounts of timber being driven into China, this situation is simply not sustainable for Myanmar's communities, who rely on the forest for their livelihoods, or the country's extraordinary wildlife and biodiversity.
 
Faith Doherty has been working on illegal logging issues for EIA for seventeen years. She has been held hostage by loggers (see Guardian link below) and is currently working with networks of forest monitors set up in Myanmar to expose the real situation on the ground. They are in need of more people to help with this work so that communities can protect their forests by exposing the people and organisations that threaten them.
 
Furniture made in China from illegally logged hardwoods is exported to the UK. Under new EU Timber Regulations, chain of custody validation for new wood products and imports is mandatory, but not for reclaimed wood. And much of the tropical Asian hardwood furniture now seen in mainstream UK stores is labelled 'made from reclaimed wood'.
 
Many items are claimed to have been made from timber rescued from old boats and buildings in Asia, often bearing traces of new paint (always the same blue, yellow, white and red it seems) distressed to look antique. It would be very convenient for these high street stores to claim that new tropical hardwood furniture is made from reclaimed wood in order to sidestep the EU Timber Regulations in UK shops.
 
So while Faith Doherty is working to stop the illegal logging and upstream supply chains on the forestry frontline, it is important that we, as downstream consumers, are not complicit in the illegal rainforest destruction. We can do this by making absolutely sure that tropical hardwood furniture we buy has not come from illegally logged timber. If you cannot do this or are suspicious that the store does not have full chain of custody information, it is safest not to buy.