The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/04
By: Nick Aspinwall

Wikimedia Commons

New initiatives such as a proposed DNA database to identify illegally harvested wood show promise, but questions remain as to whether the government is doing enough at the point of sale.

In Taiwan’s old-growth forests, the illegal timber trade remains big business. Poachers venture into the mountains in search of the endangered Hinoki cypress and red cedar trees, preferring those which have developed unique wood patterns over time – Hinoki trees can live up to 3,000 years.

Artisans carve the timber into elaborate sculptures, and the finished products are sold to eager Taiwanese and Chinese buyers in markets like those of Sanyi, a tourist town and Taiwan’s woodcarving mecca. The process begins in the mountain forests as a tightly wrapped secret, but once wood reaches the point of sale, it finds no further need to hide.
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