NYT: Chinese Demand for Lumber Overwhelms Russian Forests

Share This Post

This article is courtesy of Wood Floor Business. You can find the original article here: https://www.woodfloorbusiness.com/

Ethical Flooring is working hard to keep up-to-date with the state of illegal logging in the world and is constantly working with our suppliers to ensure that all our hardwood floors are from legally-harvested sources. The article begins below…


China’s insatiable demand for timber in recent years has begun to overwhelm the countries supplying its timber, including Russia, according to a New York Times report.

Russia has been disgorging huge quantities of lumber to China (200 million cubic meters in 2017 alone), according to the article, depleting forests in Siberia and selling the material at a low cost. The large amount of logging in Russia has begun to spur protests in the country.

China, which restricted logging in many of its own natural forests decades ago, has also turned to Peru, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique and Myanmar in its quest to meet its timber demand, and in the process has become the largest importer and exporter of wood in the world. The value of its timber imports has grown more than 10 times since 1998, reaching $23 billion in 2017.

As imports flow into China, the logging practice in Russia has developed a reputation for exploiting lax oversight for illegally logged wood, according to the report. The corruption has sparked outrage in the country, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling the Russia’s forest industry “a very corrupt sector” in December.

The full NYT report can be found here.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Get updates and learn from the best

More To Explore

Uncategorized

2024 Vancouver Flooring Trends

As we begin 2024, let’s have a look at some of the 2024 Vancouver flooring trends. Hardwood Floors Wire-brushed White Oak engineered hardwood floors still

engineered hardwood

Timberwise Hardwood at Ethical Flooring

Ethical Flooring is pleased to be your North and West Vancouver supplier of Made-in-Finland Timberwise Hardwood floors. Timberwise is the world’s best wooden floor. It

Shopping Cart