Vietnam must address this weak approach to any agreement with the EU to combat illegal logging and the associated trade,” EIA senior forests campaigner Jago Wadley said. The illicit industry flourished after a 2014 legislative change in Vietnam allowed the trade of timber from Cambodia. Officials in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province do not check to see if the timber was illegally sourced, thus legitimising the transactions. “The findings reveal how Vietnamese state and security officials have issued and administered formal quotas facilitating the legalisation of illegal timber,” the report says. “These quotas have incentivised and facilitated illegal logging on a massive scale in neighbouring Cambodia, precisely at a time when that country is publicly seeking to stop all timber trade with Vietnam,” the report claimed.

Source: Bangkok Post May 08, 2017 05:48 UTC