‘Timber mafia’ devastate Russian forests

Siberian tigers under threat as ‘timber mafia’ devastate Russian forests

Sebastian Strangio

Criminal gangs are increasingly smuggling Russian timber into China for manufacture into baby cribs, picture frames and toilet seats sold in the west. Those trying to thwart them face violence and corruption….

…..The city is also the main transit point for a pernicious and largely unacknowledged international trade in illegal timber. Environmentalists say thousands of cubic metres of Russian hardwoods are being illegally exported by train through Suifenhe each day, prompted by a rising Chinese demand and a culture of official corruption and fear – a trade that also threatens the world’s last remaining populations of Siberian tigers……  CONT

via Siberian tigers under threat as ‘timber mafia’ devastate Russian forests – investigations – The Ecologist.