For decades the tropical forests of Sarawak and Sabah have been pillaged by thieves. Timber companies and politicians have shared equally in the proceeds of this environmental crime and become billionaires on the back of it. They pay bribes; not taxes and at the same time have almost entirely destroyed a natural resource that belongs to all the people of this planet, who are threatened by climate change.

None of these considerations move the envoronmental crimnals involved, of whom the former Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and the current one Adenan Staem are the prncipals together with their Chinese tycoon associates in the “big six” Sarawak timber companies.

Not only have the latter raped their own country, but they are also engaged in doing the same to all other areas of the world where tropical forest still exists;though in rapidly diminishing quantities. What is to be done about this mega crime?

Nothing will be done by the governments of the countries where it is being committed. They have all been bought in one way or another. But there is a solution. This stolen timber is worth little or nothing where it is felled. The market, and it is a very profitable one is in the developed world where tropical hardwod is a very valuable commodity.

There are two ways of dealing with such commodities.The first is to ban their import. This, unlike illegal drugs, is easy to do and easy to police and is the obvious way to halt felling of such timber in short order.

For those governments which are unwilling, for whatever reasons, to take such a drastic step there remains the option of imposing  import duties at rates that will make purchases of this timber impossible for all but the very rich. That effectivey kills the market and, again, smuggling is not really an option in the face of determined enforcement.

So. Dont waste time on pleas to crooked timber merchants and politicians in the producing countries. Force the passage of laws to shut off imports in the markets of consuming countries.