As Chinese buildings rise, Asia's forests fall.

• Author: Halweil, Brian
• Position: ENVIRONMENTAL Intelligence

"The great sucking sound continues," wrote David Kaimowitz in a recent e-mail to forest policy experts about China's unquenchable thirst for forest products. That demand has propelled China in the last decade from the seventh largest importer of forest products worldwide to the second, in terms of value. (China has already eclipsed the United States in volume of imports.) "That has provided new opportunities for many exporters, but it has also fueled illegal logging and forest destruction," added Kaimowitz, who is executive director of the Center for International...