Myanmar: $5.7Bn in Timber Smuggled Out of Burma, Illegal Logging Rampant: Report

Mar 26, 2014 | Paul Vrieze and Htet Naing Zaw, The Irrawaddy
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RANGOON — Between 2000 and 2013, Burma’s rich forests were decimated through authorized logging as well as a massive illegal timber trade that saw 22.8 million cubic meters of wood with an estimated total value of US$8 billion leave the country, a new report says.

Of this enormous quantity of exported timber, 48 percent was felled illegally, without any government permission, while $5.7 billion worth of logs—or 72 percent of the trade—was smuggled across the border through illicit export deals, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).