The BVRio Responsible Timber Exchange in Brazil and the Chinese authorities are jointly setting up a website that lets importers of tropical timber trace the origin of their purchases, with a view to curbing illegal logging, CGTN reports.
BVRio executive director Maurício Moura Costa told the Chinese television news channel in an interview that China accounted for about 10 percent of the international trade in timber. “So everything they do matters in terms of raising the legality standards of trade worldwide”, he said. “This partnership with China is a great opportunity to serve more people and more companies.”
The idea is that if importers in China and elsewhere can find out where timber they are offered comes from, they will buy only timber that is produced legally.
The report says UN data indicate that almost one-third of tropical timber is felled illegally. China is the second-largest importer of tropical wood in the world, CGTN says.
