June, 2009
Local authorities in the Russian Far East have sold off more than 400 forest plots of vital Amur tiger habitat for commercial logging, prompting fresh calls from WWF for increased regulation and enforcement.
The sales went ahead amid increasing evidence that Korean cedar pine, the basis of the endangered tigers’ habitat and a vital food source for their prey, is becoming a favoured target for commercial logging.
Prices of many wood types have fallen due to the ongoing economic crisis, while demand for the Korean pine remains strong, and prices high.
WWF is calling on law enforcement bodies to invalidate the sales, since they bypassed regulations on three regional and one federal wildlife refuge. They also ignored the wishes of local people, supported by WWF, who had been hoping to obtain a lease for two of the areas to sustainably harvest nuts, medicinal ingredients and edible plants.
We are proposing that provincial and federal authorities urgently add Korean pine to the list of species that are banned from being logged. Recently, WWF staff joined local authorities in a raid on one wood exporter in the town of Dalnerechensk and discovered enough illegally cut Korean cedar pine to fill three or four Olympic-sized swimming pools. And two logging sites, large enough to have supplied about a quarter of this wood, were found in an area leased by one of the biggest logging companies in the region.
Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF’s International Species Programme, vowed to keep up the pressure : “This rampant and mindless logging is shocking, and it disturbs the habitat and prey of some of the rarest animals in the world.”