China's newest forest built of wood from other nations

While Beijing is now trying to protect its own woods, it ignores the import of protected timber from Russia, South America and its Asian neighbors.

The forests of Zhangjiagang are horizontal: tens of thousands of felled, stripped trees lying on the quayside of China's biggest timber port, far from their roots in Indonesia, Russia, South America and Africa.

The trunks of pine, maple, merbau and zebra wood are dead, but this forest is growing. Every year, more and more logs are shipped into these wharves to satisfy the voracious demand for timber in the world's most populous and fastest rising nation.

In many cases they are illegal, smuggled from protected rainforests despite China's pledges to tackle the huge international trade in contraband logs.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/04/23/2003251610