Borderlines: Vietnam's Booming Furniture Industry and <br />Timber Smuggling in the Mekong Region <br /><br />Vietnam has become a hub for processing huge quantities of unlawfully-logged timber from <br />across Indochina, threatening some of the last intact forests in the region, a major new report <br />reveals. Much of the illegally-imported wood is made into furniture for export to consumer <br />markets in Europe and the US. Undercover investigations by the UK-based Environmental <br />Investiagtions Agency (EIA) and Indonesian NGO Telapak have revealed how Vietnam's <br />booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation <br />throughout the Mekong river region, particularly in neightbouring Laos. <br /><br />See more on <br /><a class="link" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.illegal-logging.info/item_single.php?item=document&item_id=609&approach_id=1">http://www.illegal-logging.info/item_single.php?item=document&item_id=609&approach_id=1</a>
