Make you Fink on Friday

China’s New Great Wall Threatens One Quarter of World’s Shorebirds

Human disregard for other species is disgusting.

The following by Richard Conniff.

Every spring, tens of thousands of plump, russet-breasted shorebirds drop down onto the wetlands of China’s Bohai Bay, ravenous after traveling 3,000 miles from Australia.

This Yellow Sea stopover point is crucial for the birds, called red knots, to rest and refuel for the second leg of their journey, which will take them another 2,000 miles up to the Arctic tundra.

Unfortunately for the red knots, the intertidal flats of Bohai Bay are rapidly disappearing, cut off from the ocean by new sea walls and filled in with silt and rock, to create buildable land for development.  In a society now relentlessly focused on short-term profit that seems like a wonderful bargain, and the collateral loss of vast areas of shorebird habitat merely an incidental detail. As a result, China’s seawall mileage has more than tripled over the past two decades, and now covers 60 percent of the mainland coastline. This “new Great Wall” is already longer than the celebrated Great Wall of China, according to an article published Thursday in Science, and it’s just getting bigger every year—with catastrophic consequences for wildlife and people.

Source: GarryRoberts.com Read more

Nature Ramble

Yet another species nearly extinct.

Man does it again!

Ancient sturgeon in China’s Yangtze ‘nearly extinct’

Chinese scientists released artificially-bred sturgeons into the Yangtze river in April

The Chinese sturgeon, thought to have existed for more than 140 million years, is now on the brink of extinction, according to local media.

Xinhua reported that no wild sturgeon reproduced naturally last year in the Yangtze river.

It was the first time since researchers began recording levels 32 years ago.

Chinese researches say the fall is due to rising levels of pollution in the Yangtze river and the construction of dozens of dams.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences also found that no young sturgeons were found swimming along the Yangtze toward the sea during the period they usually do so.

A researcher told Xinhua that in the 1980s, at least several thousand sturgeon could be found in the river. It is estimated only around 100 fish remain.

“Without natural reproduction, the fish population cannot replenish itself. If there are no further steps taken to strengthen conservation, the wild sturgeon faces the danger of extinction,” he said.

Several sturgeon fish are housed in the Beijing aquarium

In recent decades the Chinese authorities have built numerous dams along the 6,300km-long Yangtze river to boost the country’s electricity supply. Such moves have drawn criticism of environmental degradation and displacement of villagers.

The WWF says that one of two species of dolphins native to the Yangtze river, the Baiji dolphin, went extinct in 2006 because of declining fish stocks.

The other species, the finless porpoise, is said to be at risk from illegal and intensive fishing practices and pollution. About 1,200 to 1,800 finless porpoises remain in the entire 1.8 million sq km Yangtze basin.

Source: BBCNews

Make you Fink on Friday

We often hear only part of the story. Sometimes because we want to, other times because the truth has never been told.

GM Salmon have made a big splash, But what about GM Grouper…

Never heard about it!

Why we should be worried about ‘Frankenfish’ in south-east Asia

Unlike GM salmon, hybrid grouper gets little attention but they potentially pose a greater threat to marine ecosystems

The market for grouper is huge – in Hong Kong alone, an estimated 3.6 million grouper are consumed each year. Photograph: ALEX OGLE/AFP/Getty Images

The fast-growing super salmon produced by American biotech company Aquabounty Technologies are poised to become the first genetically modified animals to hit food markets in the US, with approval from authorities widely expected later this year. But AquAdvantage® salmon has made headlines because of the potential risks to wild stocks in the Atlantic should they escape and breed.

Hybrid grouper, on the other hand, gets almost no media attention, yet they potentially pose a greater threat to marine ecosystems because they’re farmed at sea, not inland like salmon. Hybridisation through in-vitro fertilisation is big in south east Asia, where aquaculture businesses are interbreeding valuable grouper species in a bid to create a fast-growing super fish.

Live grouper and other reef predators are highly-prized food in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and other parts of south-east Asia. They crowd tanks in seafood restaurants and are ubiquitous at Chinese wedding banquets and other formal occasions, where tradition demands they are served. Grouper can sell for well over US$100 (£59) a kilo, with very large or rare specimens selling for much more.

The market is huge. In Hong Kong alone, an estimated 3.6 million grouper are consumed each year. Demand has led to rampant overfishing across South East Asia’s Coral Triangle, a million square kilometre bioregion that’s home to more marine species than anywhere else on earth. Fishermen often use cyanide to stun grouper, destroying coral reefs in the process. According to a recent University of Hong Kong study, one in ten grouper species face extinction if current trends aren’t arrested.

In theory, advanced aquaculture techniques offer a way of fulfilling demand while reducing the pressure on wild populations. In reality, aquaculture has simply added a new market, with additional sealife being taken from the ocean to feed farmed fish in Malaysia, China and Taiwan.

Grouper are nurtured first in hatcheries from cultivated eggs and then in coastal cages or factories. Hybridisation aims to achieve the holy trinity of rapid growth rates, resilience and superior taste.

“Hybridisation of grouper isn’t new,” says Dr. Geoffrey Muldoon, a fisheries economist with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). “As far back as 1996 the University of Malaysia produced a giant grouper/tiger grouper hybrid, dubbed the Sabah Grouper specifically for live reef fish food markets in Hong Kong,” he explains. The hybrid was popular with consumers and a boom followed. “Two decades on and the science of grouper hybridisation has exploded,” says Muldoon.

In the early days, scientists only experimented with cross breeding natural grouper species. But then researchers in Taiwan began breeding hybrids with naturals and then different hybrids with each other. According to Irwin Wong, a live fish trader in Sabah, at last count, there were at least 12 new hybrid grouper variants and research is continuing in what has become a race to create a super grouper. But what if they escape?

“The fact is, hybrids have already escaped,” says Wong. “If there’s a storm, fish often get free from coastal cages.”

His fear is that two hybrids will breed in the wild. “If that happened, the effects on the ecosystem could be severe.” Because captive hybrids are fed a mix of protein rich pellets and fish, they need to consume less than their wild counterparts to add weight, according to Muldoon. If they escaped and proliferated, there could be a dramatic knock on effect in terms of demand for prey species.

Grouper are hermaphrodites – or monandric protogynous hermaphrodites to give them their full title. Early in their growth cycle they are females, but in adulthood they can change into males. No one knows the precise trigger for this transformation, though size, age and environmental factors all play a part. Hybrid groupers in captivity are all female – but in the wild they could easily change sex, according to Wong. Which brings up the possibility of a sort of “X-Grouper” wreaking havoc with the food chain.

Source: The Guardian Read more

Opinion:

Once again man is meddling with nature, and we don’t have any idea what we are doing.

Nature Ramble

A very rare species seen.

Rare blackthroated blue robins spotted in China

A female blackthroat; the first ever sighted

Crucial new discoveries about one of the world’s least-known and rarest birds have been made by scientists.

The blackthroat, or blackthroated blue robin (Calliope obscura) is one of the world’s rarest “robins”, being known from only a handful of records since it was first described in the 1890s.

In 2011, experts resighted a small number of male blackthroats in China.

But now they have sighted a female and a breeding pair, learning more about the robin’s behaviour.

Details of the discovery are published in the Journal of Ornithology.

The species was first observed in 1886 in Gansu province, north west China.

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, about 10 individuals were collected at two locations in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces between May and August, during what was thought to the bird’s breeding season.

Since then, there have been very few records of the species, the bird being occasionally sighted in China and Thailand, with a few specimens appearing in markets that trade birds.

The blackthroat is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and almost nothing was known about its behaviour or breeding.

In a bid to relocate the bird, a team of scientists based at the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, visited six national parks in central China, targeting habitats they thought it might frequent.

In 2011, they documented 14 males, recording the bird’s distinctive song.

Since then, they have managed to spot blackthroats, including a breeding female, on numerous occasions within three locations, as well as a nest with two chicks.

Many of the birds were found living in forests inundated with bamboo.

In total, 58 adult blackthroats have now been observed since the species was first discovered in 1886.

Male blackthroats can mimic other birds

Read more

Nature Ramble

New bird family discovered in Asia

The spotted wren-babbler has a new title

A unique family of birds containing just one species has been discovered by researchers.

Scientists investigating families within the Passerida group of perching birds identified 10 separate branches in their tree of life.

The analysis also revealed that the spotted wren-babbler sat on its own branch and was not related to either wrens or wren-babblers.

Experts recommend the distinctive bird should now be referred to as Elachura.

The discovery is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

“This single species is the only living representative of one of the earliest off-shoots within the largest group of [perching birds], which comprises [around] 36% of the world’s 10,500 bird species,” said Prof Per Alstrom from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, who undertook the study alongside researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.

Elachura formosa is a small perching bird – or passerine – that is found from the eastern Himalayas to southeast China.

Prof Alstrom describes it as “extremely secretive and difficult to observe, as it usually hides in very dense tangled undergrowth in the subtropical mountain forests.”

“However, during the breeding season, when the males sing their characteristic, high-pitched song, which doesn’t resemble any other continental Asian bird song, it can sometimes be seen sitting on a branch inside a bush.”

He suggests the bird had previously been overlooked because it looks “strikingly similar” to wrens and wren-babblers.

“This similarity is apparently either due to pure chance or to convergent evolution, which may result in similar appearances in unrelated species that live in similar environments – some wren-babblers can be neighbours to the Elachura,” Prof Alstrom explained.

Read more

Nature Ramble

A little different this week. Looking at extinction. It has been going on for millions of years, Mother Nature herself has been doing it.

‘Animal Pompeii’ wiped out China’s ancient creatures

The fossils of a dinosaur (l) and two primitive birds (m,r) show the creatures locked in their death throes

The puzzle of how a 120-million-year-old animal graveyard in China formed may have been solved.

Scientists believe that the creatures from the lower Cretaceous era were instantly killed by volcanic eruptions similar to the violent blast that hit the Roman city of Pompeii.

Much like the residents of the city, the animals were entombed in ash and frozen in their death throes.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Lead researcher Baoyu Jiang, from Nanjing University in China, said: “Scientists have been curious for a long time in how these animals were killed and became exceptionally preserved.”

The blast of hot gas, dust and ash from volcanic eruptions would have killed the animals instantly

The fossil beds of Liaoning province in north-east China, which date to 120-130 million years ago, have long baffled scientists.

An eclectic array of animals – known as the Jehol Biota – have been unearthed there: they include the first-known feathered dinosaurs, early mammals, birds, fish and insects.

The site is so rich in fossils and well preserved that it has transformed palaeontologists’ understanding of this ancient era, shedding light on evolution and the diversity of life at this time.

Buried together, they are remarkably well preserved – and the apparent victims of major deadly events.

Now scientists say eruptions were responsible.

The conifer forests and lakes where these animals once lived were surrounded by volcanoes, and the researchers believe deadly blasts would have sent a surge of incredibly hot gas, ash and rock – known as pyroclastic flow – across the landscape.

The team says this would have been similar to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which wiped out Pompeii.

Like the people who lived in the city, the ancient animals would have been killed in an instant, and then buried under a dense layers of ash.

The creatures are captured mid-movement, with their limbs flexed and spines extended.

 

Read more

 

Global threat to food supply

…as water wells dry up, warns top environment expert

Lester Brown says grain harvests are already shrinking as US, India and China come close to ‘peak water’

Iraq is among the countries in the Middle East facing severe water shortages. Photograph: Ali al-Saadi/AFP

Wells are drying up and underwater tables falling so fast in the Middle East and parts of India, China and the US that food supplies are seriously threatened, one of the world’s leading resource analysts has warned.

In a major new essay Lester Brown, head of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, claims that 18 countries, together containing half the world’s people, are now overpumping their underground water tables to the point – known as “peak water” – where they are not replenishing and where harvests are getting smaller each year.

The situation is most serious in the Middle East. According to Brown: “Among the countries whose water supply has peaked and begun to decline are Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. By 2016 Saudi Arabia projects it will be importing some 15m tonnes of wheat, rice, corn and barley to feed its population of 30 million people. It is the first country to publicly project how aquifer depletion will shrink its grain harvest.

“The world is seeing the collision between population growth and water supply at the regional level. For the first time in history, grain production is dropping in a geographic region with nothing in sight to arrest the decline. Because of the failure of governments in the region to mesh population and water policies, each day now brings 10,000 more people to feed and less irrigation water with which to feed them.”

Brown warns that Syria’s grain production peaked in 2002 and since then has dropped 30%; Iraq has dropped its grain production 33% since 2004; and production in Iran dropped 10% between 2007 and 2012 as its irrigation wells started to go dry.

“Iran is already in deep trouble. It is feeling the effects of shrinking water supplies from overpumping. Yemen is fast becoming a hydrological basket case. Grain production has fallen there by half over the last 35 years. By 2015 irrigated fields will be a rarity and the country will be importing virtually all of its grain.”

There is also concern about falling water tables in China, India and the US, the world’s three largest food-producing countries. “In India, 175 million people are being fed with grain produced by overpumping, in China 130 million. In the United States the irrigated area is shrinking in leading farm states with rapid population growth, such as California and Texas, as aquifers are depleted and irrigation water is diverted to cities.”

Falling water tables are already adversely affecting harvest prospects in China, which rivals the US as the world’s largest grain producer, says Brown. “The water table under the North China Plain, an area that produces more than half of the country’s wheat and a third of its maize is falling fast. Overpumping has largely depleted the shallow aquifer, forcing well drillers to turn to the region’s deep aquifer, which is not replenishable.”

The situation in India may be even worse, given that well drillers are now using modified oil-drilling technology to reach water half a mile or more deep. “The harvest has been expanding rapidly in recent years, but only because of massive overpumping from the water table. The margin between food consumption and survival is precarious in India, whose population is growing by 18 million per year and where irrigation depends almost entirely on underground water. Farmers have drilled some 21m irrigation wells and are pumping vast amounts of underground water, and water tables are declining at an accelerating rate in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.”

In the US, farmers are overpumping in the Western Great Plains, including in several leading grain-producing states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Irrigated agriculture has thrived in these states, but the water is drawn from the Ogallala aquifer, a huge underground water body that stretches from Nebraska southwards to the Texas Panhandle. “It is, unfortunately, a fossil aquifer, one that does not recharge. Once it is depleted, the wells go dry and farmers either go back to dryland farming or abandon farming altogether, depending on local conditions,” says Brown.

“In Texas, located on the shallow end of the aquifer, the irrigated area peaked in 1975 and has dropped 37% since then. In Oklahoma irrigation peaked in 1982 and has dropped by 25%. In Kansas the peak did not come until 2009, but during the three years since then it has dropped precipitously, falling nearly 30%. Nebraska saw its irrigated area peak in 2007. Since then its grain harvest has shrunk by 15%.”

Brown warned that many other countries may be on the verge of declining harvests. “With less water for irrigation, Mexico may be on the verge of a downturn in its grain harvest. Pakistan may also have reached peak water. If so, peak grain may not be far behind.”

Opinion:

Just another example of, ‘we’re in the poo!

Oh, and the same thing is happening here in Brazil…

Monday Moaning

Voters on shark conservation facing ‘undue pressure’

Several species of Hammerheads are among those under threat

Delegates at a conservation meeting in Thailand are expected to vote on proposals to extend protection to three vulnerable species of sharks.

But campaigners say undue “pressuring” of developing countries could swing Monday’s vote against the ban.

China and Japan are said to be using their trade connections to unfairly influence the outcome.

Japan denies exercising any unfair pressure, saying every delegation should vote based on their own beliefs.

An estimated 100 million sharks are killed by commercial fishing every year, researchers have recently reported.

They blame a huge appetite for shark-fin soup in China and Hong Kong for stimulating the trade.

The proposals at the Cites conservation meeting in Bangkok suggest protecting some of the most endangered species, who are highly valued for their fins.

These include the Oceanic whitetip, several species of Hammerheads and the Porbeagle shark as well as two types of manta ray which are hunted for their gill plates. These are used in some Chinese traditional medicines.

Blocking tactics

The amendments would not ban the fishing of these species, but would ensure that catches are regulated – meaning that importers and exporters would require permits.

But with support closely divided between those in favour of extending protection and those who want to keep the status quo, some campaigners claim that unfair and underhanded tactics are being used to block the proposal.

“There’s been a lot of shenanigans and pressuring of developing countries,” Dr Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Oceanic trust told BBC News at the meeting.

“It is going to be very close,” Dr Lieberman added.

Dr Lieberman said she believed that China and Japan were responsible for placing undue pressure on nations that do not have any great interest in the shark trade, especially countries in Africa and the Middle East.

She says they are concerned that a successful shark vote could set a precedent for regulating other fish species.

“Japan is not a big player in the shark trade but it is a philosophical issue. They don’t want Cites to deal with fisheries. They just want it off the table. For China, they just don’t want to implement this. ”

A large number of countries fish for shark but most trade goes through Hong Kong

One delegate who wished to remain anonymous told BBC News that pressure from China and Japan was the “usual procedure” at these meetings.

The BBC has seen an anonymous leaflet designed to remind delegates that regulating the trade in small number of threatened shark species would be damaging.

“The livelihoods of fishermen would decline,” it says. “No conservation benefits would accrue.”

It is expected that a secret ballot will be called on the shark proposal, according to Dr Colman O’Criodain, who is attending this meeting on behalf of WWF international.

Arm twisting

He also feels that China and Japan are bringing undue pressure on developing countries in particular.

“They certainly seem to be twisting arms from the feedback we are getting. They’re saying people have approached them,” he said.

Read more

Opinion:

Fine let China use the fish from their own waters. Once they’re extinct there, don’t come looking in our waters.

Ban all exports of shark products to China.

China has to wake up and smell the coffee that their flagrant practices because it’s their traditional ‘medicine’ (which is crap anyway, just superstition) are damaging the planet for the rest of us.

Japan needs to pull its head in too. They are just adding fuel to the fire to protect their own disreputable whaling practices.

Any practice that uses only a part of an animal and discards the rest must be banned.

The world needs to seriously take a stance, you catch it, you use it… all.

Update!

The sharks win!

‘Historic’ day for shark protection

The oceanic whitetip is found in tropical and warm temperate seas

Three types of critically endangered but commercially valuable shark have been given added protection at the Cites meeting in Bangkok.

The body, which regulates trade in flora and fauna, voted by a two-thirds majority to upgrade the sharks’ status.

Campaigners hailed the move as historic and said the vote represented a major breakthrough for marine conservation.

Read more

Monday Moaning

Milk Scare Hits Dairy Power New Zealand

Low levels of dicyandiamide-also called DCD-have been found in New Zealand milk. The chemical, which farmers apply to pastures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, is toxic to humans in high doses

WELLINGTON—A toxic substance has been found in New Zealand milk, in a potential blow to the nation’s dairy exports, which are valued at 11.5 billion New Zealand dollars (US$9.7 billion) annually.

The country’s two biggest fertilizer companies, Ravensdown Ltd. and Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd., have suspended sales of dicyandiamide, or DCD, after low levels were found in dairy products. Farmers apply DCD to pastures to prevent nitrate, a fertilizer byproduct that can also cause health problems, from getting into rivers and lakes.

Though there are no international standards for the acceptable level of DCD in food products, in high doses the substance is toxic to humans.

Government officials Thursday expressed concern about the potential damage to the image of an industry that accounts for nearly a third of the nation’s exports.

“New Zealand’s reputation is based on the high quality of food we produce,” said Carol Barnao, deputy director of general standards at New Zealand’s primary industries ministry, which is responsible for exports and protecting the nation from biological risks. A government study of DCD use is now under way.

Wall Street Journal

and this…

Fonterra CEO plays down milk worries

The CEO of dairy giant Fonterra has described reaction to trace findings of nitrate inhibitor in milk as “way out of proportion”.

Co-op chief Theo Spierings said he could assure consumers worldwide that Fonterra products were safe to consume.

“We know some of our customers and regulators have questions. We need to answer them, and that’s exactly what we are doing,” he said.

“We have strong science and we are providing assurances about the safety of our products. Our testing has found only minute traces of DCD in samples of some of our products. It is important to remember that the minute traces detected were around 100 times lower than acceptable levels under European food safety limits. ”

On Friday Fonterra issued a press release saying it supported moves by New Zealand’s two main fertiliser suppliers to voluntarily suspend sales and use of Dicyandiamide (DCD) treatment on farm land until further notice.

DCD is used to inhibit nitrate leaching into waterways from fertiliser treatments and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision followed a finding in September that traces of DCD had appeared in milk tested by Fonterra. Spierings said talks with fertiliser companies Ravensdown and Ballnce agri-nutrients about withdrawing DCD from the market had begun at that time.

Todd Muller, managing director of co-operative affairs at Fonterra, said the problem with DCD use was that although Europe had standards for DCD traces, most countries didn’t, which meant the issue could create barriers to Fonterra’s exports.

“Because farmers were looking to DCD as a tool to mitigate farm environmental impacts,” he said, “we could see a potential problem in future.”

The press conference followed media headlines in the United States and China drawing attention to the DCD finding and questioning the safety of New Zealand milk.

Spierings said his concern was not about milk safety but about consumers being concerned by rumours rather than facts. “The whole industry is affected, based on rumours,” he said.

The potential impact was enough to make sure the government was kept fully informed, said Spierings.

“We have a 100 per cent open line [to the government] every day, because it’s a New Zealand issue,” he said.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

Opinion:

Point 1 :: I would trust nothing any CEO says.

Point 2 :: Ditto for governments.

Question, why has Dicyandiamide (DCD) been immediately withdrawn from the market?

I suspect because there IS a problem!

Is this another case of companies, corporations and governments pulling the wool over our eyes?

Profits and GDP are more important than people!

Further reading:

Don’t blame me, I just eat grass – image: 3news

Now, look where it’s made

But Ministry for Primary Industries director-general Wayne McNee said in a statement the amount of small DCD residues found posed no food safety risk.

“DCD is not melamine. It is a different chemical and has none of the toxicity that melamine has.” – 3news Read more:

DCD is also used in the production of melamine, the compound which left Chinese babies sick and some dead, after they drank milk powder contaminated with melamine. – RadioNZNews Read more:

Monday Moaning

Yes, I know it’s Tuesday and I should be doing a CTWW post for tomorrow, but this has just landed on my plate.

China is fast becoming the most belligerent country on the planet. We know about their refusal to compromise in the use of fossil fuels, we know about their dubious mining practices for rare earths, we know about their ridiculous claims to the South China Sea, we know about their new aircraft carrier, and now this…

China at the centre of ‘illegal timber’ trade

Environmental groups accuse ports and cities of being a centre for illegally logged wood despite international conservation treaties

Workers loads timber on to a truck in Yuanjiang, Hunan province, China. Photograph: AP

China is at the centre of a vast global traffic in illegally logged timber that is destroying entire swaths of forest around the world.Academic research and NGOs such as WWF and Global Witness have already revealed the existence of illegal trading networks in central Africa, Burma and Russia leading directly to Chinese ports or cities. Now for the first time fingers are pointing directly to Beijing and holding public enterprises and local government officials responsible for this highly lucrative illegal trade.

The British NGO, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), published a detailed report at the end of November called “China, appetite for destruction”. It reveals just how China’s appetite for wood has grown in the past decades as a result of consumption by the new middle classes, as well as an export-driven wood industry facing growing demand from major foreign furniture and construction companies.

China has become the leading importer, consumer and exporter of the world’s timber. Its own forests provide less than 40% of its needs. According to the report, “in response to severe flooding in 1998, China adopted a Natural Forest Conservation Programme […] and embarked on a massive programme of reforestation […] The government spent $31bn on tree planting between 1999 and 2009.”

But the gap between domestic supply and demand has continued to grow. In 2011 China imported 180m cubic metres of wood products, 28% more than in 2010 and 300% more than in 2000. According to the EIA, last year one-third of all the timber sold worldwide was bought by China, with little regard to its origin.

Unlike the US, the EU and Australia, which, under pressure from public opinion, have adopted legislation banning illegal timber imports, China has made no such move. The government has only signed bilateral agreements with the US, Europe, Indonesia and Burma, the benefits of which have yet to be demonstrated.

After analysing trade data for 36 supplier countries, the EIA has concluded that approximately 10% of the logs and sawed timber is illegal, representing “turnover” of $3.7bn. Public enterprises, often controlled by provincial governments, play a strategic role in this trade, says the EIA, citing illegal imports from Indonesia and Mozambique. The report describes corruption networks in countries with weak governments such as Burma, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Rosewood trafficking is especially lucrative. Although rosewood is classified as an endangered species by the International Trade Convention, trade in that wood has risen dramatically, triggered by demand from well-off Chinese households for reproductions of Qing and Ming dynasty furniture. It is now sourced in Madagascar, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Belize, and rosewood imports to China rose from 66,000 cubic metres in 2005 to 565,000 cubic metres in 2011.

Opinion:

China has shown scant regard for anything that might help the environment, its appetite for destruction knows no bounds.

The only interest that China has is a great big get rich scheme that will hasten its aims of world domination.

The world has let China get too big and powerful and will suffer the consequences.

The world has tackled smaller nations for becoming belligerent, and acting against the interests of the west both militarily and by way of sanctions, but they are too scared to say “Boo!” to China; and now it is too late.

All the world is wooing China as a partner making it both richer and stronger.