Laos’ Sin City’s an illegal wildlife supermarket for Chinese tourists
A resort complex tucked away in Laos and marketed to Chinese gamblers and tourists is a hub for trade in illegal wildlife products and parts, a new report reveals
Tag: china
Crime & corruption behind Tanzania’s elephant meltdown
Our new report, Vanishing Point - Criminality, Corruption and the Devastation of Tanzania's Elephants, reveals that Chinese-led criminal gangs are conspiring with corrupt Tanzanian officals to traffic huge amunts of ivory. This illegal trade has caused half of Tanzania's elephants to be poached in the past five years.
Timber smugglers won’t heed China’s voluntary guidelines
Massive flows of illegal timber stolen from forests around the world will not be stemmed by voluntary industry guidelines currently being developed by the Chinese Government, environmentalists have warned
China’s illegal timber imports ransack Mozambique’s forests
Insatiable Chinese demand for timber is driving a grossly unsustainable illegal logging and timber smuggling crisis which threatens to undermine Mozambique’s forest resources - during 2013, a staggering 93 per cent of logging in Mozambique was illegal
Myanmar rosewood stolen to feed China’s furniture craze
Myanmar’s precious rosewood tree species are heading for imminent commercial extinction at the hands of China’s multi-billion dollar rosewood furniture boom. Illegal trade in rosewood is driven by wealthy elites in China and their desire for the high-end Ming and Qing dynasty reproduction furniture known as ‘hongmu’
China’s furniture craze drives Siam rosewood to extinction
Siamese rosewood has been illegally logged to the brink of extinction in the Mekong region to feed a voracious demand for luxury furniture in China which leaves a bloody trail of death, violence and corruption in its wake in a trade driven by the expanding wealthy elites in China