The nation (24/7/99)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

Forestry team to check claims on timber imports from Burma

FOLLOWING official confirmation from the Burmese government about the
amount of timber proposed to be imported into Thailand, Agriculture
Minister Pongpol Adireksan announced the establishment of a special team to
inspect whether the amount claimed actually exists. 

Pongpol said yesterday that the Burmese confirmation -- from its Forestry
Minister Saw Mint -- stated officially that four companies had submitted
requests to import a combined 20,503 tonnes of timber from Burma. 

According to Pongpol, SA Pharmaceutical requested 16,186 tonnes, B&F
Goodrich 1,832 tonnes, Pholphana Company 1,685 tonnes, and the Korean
Veteran Company 800 tonnes. 

He said that, apart from SA Pharmaceutical, most of the timber for proposed
import was teak. SA Pharmaceutical proposed to import teak and other hard
wood in roughly equal amounts. 

The minister said the next step was for a working team to be established to
inspect the actual amounts of timber claimed by the four companies. Burmese
officials will be invited to join the inspection in practice, he added. 

''The process of log imports will be transparent and inspectable,'' Pongpol
said. 

The import of timber from Burma has been criticised for accelerating
deforestation in Thailand along the border, especially in the Salween
National Park and wildlife sanctuary over the past couple of years. The
permission for log imports provides a loophole for timber companies to
claim that the logs are imported from Burma, while they in fact from the
Thai side of the border. 

Later, a number of logging companies whose concessions from the Burmese
government had expired, requested the Thai government to allow them to
import the remaining cut logs from Burmese territory. 

These requests were criticised, however, on the grounds that the cut logs
did not actually exist, or -- if they did -- were fewer than the companies
claimed. 

Royal Forestry Department director general Plodprasop Suraswadi recently
announced that the log imports would be allowed only if the existence of
the cut timber is proven by Thai officials. 

Early this week, the four companies submitted their requested amounts to
the Agriculture Ministry. The ministry said the amounts must be confirmed
by the Burmese government, prior to actual inspection and then approval. 
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