Japanese companies are buying illegally-logged timber from endangered rainforests in the Sarawak region in Malaysia, according to the news site the Malaysian Insider.
The news site cites a report on illegal logging from Global Witness. According to this report two Japanese companies, Sojitz Corporation and Itochu Corporation, are getting timber from two of Sarawak’s largest logging companies – Samling Global and Shin Yang Group – both of which it said were also involved in “systematic illegal and destructive logging”.
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo.
Japan is the largest importer of timber from Sarawak for the past 20 years, accounting for half of all tropical plywood export. But illegal logging is devastating the state’s rainforests and threatening the livelihoods of the indigenous communities.
Deforestation rates in Sarawak are among the highest in the world, and only 5 per cent of the state’s original forest cover remains unaffected by logging or clearance for plantations, according to Global Witness.
