Despite an export ban, Vietnamese companies are smuggling logs from the once-rich forests of Laos to feed a billion-dollar wood industry that turns timber into furniture for export to the Europe and the United States, an environmental group says.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency alleged the Vietnamese military was heavily involved in bribing Lao officials and then trafficking the timber on a massive scale to be processed in neighbouring Vietnam. The government and military deny it.
Laos, with some of the last intact tropical forests in Southeast Asia, banned the export of raw timber in 1999 and says it is expanding its forest cover. But there are widespread reports of rampant logging, often associated with the country's mushrooming dam projects and agricultural plantations.
"Vietnam is almost annexing areas of Laos to feed its own industries. The only winners in Laos are corrupt government officials and well-connected businessmen," Julian Newman, an EIA staffer, said at a news conference on Thursday. The group focuses on environmental crime worldwide.
Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga denied the allegations.
"There is no smuggling of timber from Laos by the Vietnamese military," she said. "Vietnam pays special attention to environmental protection, strictly forbids smuggling and illegal exploitation of timber."
She said all "smuggling and illegal exploitation of timber will be strictly dealt with in accordance with Vietnamese law.
"The governments of Vietnam and Laos have been and will be coordinating to prevent all smuggling activities including timber smuggling."