老紅木流向中國內地 奢侈傢俱需求毀壞湄公河森林

China’s surging demand for luxury furniture and a revived cultural tradition are not only taking a toll on the forests of its Southeast Asian neighbors but also fueling a deadly crime wave across the region, according to an environmental monitoring group.

一家環境監測機構稱，中國對豪華傢俱高漲的需求以及文化傳統的復興，不僅破壞了東南亞鄰國的森林，還在整個地區引發了一波犯罪狂潮，甚至有人因此喪命。

A new report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency says that illegal logging and corruption have contributed to the near extinction of Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis), an increasingly rare tropical hardwood found in countries in the Mekong region, including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

總部位於倫敦的環境調查署(Environmental Investigation Agency)最新發布的報告稱，非法砍伐和腐敗行爲已成爲交趾黃檀幾近消亡的一個原因。這種熱帶硬木生長在湄公河流域國家，包括泰國、越南、老撾和柬埔寨，現在已越來越稀有。

Laws in these countries ban either logging or exporting the timber, but Chinese demand for the richly hued wood, known in Chinese as lao hongmu, literally “old redwood,” is so high that it is driving illegal logging and smuggling across the region, the report says, based on investigations over the past decade.<BR>“From 2000-13, China imported a total of 3.5 million cubic meters of hongmu timber,” it says. “Nearly half of China’s hongmu imports since 2000 — amounting to 1,666,471 cubic meters valued at nearly $2.4 billion — came from the Mekong.”

這份報告是根據過去10年的調查得出的。報告中稱，這些國家的法律都禁止砍伐和出口這種木材，但中國對這種色彩濃豔的木材（在中國被稱爲“老紅木”）需求如此之高，因而推動了整個地區的非法砍伐和走私活動。“從2000到2013年，中國共進口了350萬立方米的紅木木材。2000年以來，幾乎一半的中國紅木進口——1666471立方米，價值將近24億美元（約合150億元人民幣）——來自湄公河流域。”

Surveys in recent years found just up to 100,000 of the trees remaining in Thailand and very few in the neighboring countries.

近幾年的調查發現，目前在泰國最多還有10萬棵交趾黃檀，在鄰國則幾乎絕跡。

The depleted forests are difficult to restore. They take “50 to 100 years before they are producing timber,” Jago Wadley, a senior forest campaigner with the Environmental Investigation Agency, said in an interview.

砍伐殆盡的森林很難恢復。需要“50到100年才能產出木材”，環境調查署的高級森林項目負責人傑戈·沃德利(Jago Wadley)在接受採訪時說。

Beyond the biological toll, there is a human one, when illegal loggers encounter enforcement officers, the agency found.

該機構發現，受到威脅的不光是樹木，還有人命，比如當非法砍伐者遭遇執法人員時。

“The tools of the trade are chainsaws, guns and even rocket-propelled grenade launchers,” the report said. “Since 2009, dozens of forest rangers have been killed” in Thailand in shootouts with loggers from remote villages or Cambodia, it continued. Forty-five Cambodian loggers were “reportedly shot dead by Thai forces in 2012 alone.”

“這個行當使用的工具是鏈鋸、槍支，甚至火箭筒，”報告寫道。在泰國，“自2009年以來，有數十名護林員遇害”，原因是在森林中遭遇盜伐者時發生槍戰。那些盜伐者來自偏遠的農村或柬埔寨。據報道有45名柬埔寨盜伐者“被泰國軍隊射殺，而這只是2012年一年的數字。”

As part of their work monitoring the trade, the agency’s undercover investigators met with traders who paid villagers from impoverished communities in cash or in methamphetamines to harvest the trees, and eventually sold the timber to dealers in China, often bribing government officials along the way, said Faith Doherty, a forest campaign team leader for the agency.

作爲監管工作的一部分，環境調查署的臥底調查人員見到了一些商人，他們以現金或毒品作爲報酬，讓貧窮村落的村民砍伐這些木材，並最終把木材賣給中國的交易商，在此過程中常常要賄賂政府官員，該組織森林保護項目負責人費斯·多爾蒂(Faith Doherty)說。

“Sometimes it can take us two to three years before we start to see a real picture emerging and who the actual actors are behind it,” Ms. Doherty said in an interview.

多爾蒂在接受採訪時說，“有時我們要花費兩三年的時間，才能弄明白真實的狀況和背後的參與者。”

Trade data from the Chinese authorities and United Nations Comtrade, a United Nations-run trade database, was also used to piece together how remote forests in the Mekong area are being cut down to meet the “unprecedented” demand in China, Ms. Doherty said.

多爾蒂說，爲了探究湄公河流域遙遠森林中的樹木遭到砍伐，最終滿足中國“前所未有”的需求的整個過程，也使用了中國政府和聯合國(United Nations)貿易統計數據庫Comtrade的貿易數據。

Rosewood has been highly prized for fine furniture in China since at least the Ming dynasty, about 600 years ago. But consumption did not reach the unsustainable levels noted in the agency’s report until recently, as the economic boom since the 1980s unleashed an appetite for luxury goods long suppressed under Mao Zedong.

至少從大約600年前的明代開始，紅木傢俱在中國就已經備受推崇。但直到最近，紅木的消費才達到了報告中所指出的那種不可持續的水平。對豪華商品的需求在毛澤東時代曾長期受到壓抑，到上世紀80年代以來的經濟繁榮中才爆發起來。

“In the past 30 years, China went through twice as much of Asia’s Siamese rosewood resource as it did” over the five centuries of “the Ming and Qing dynasties combined,” said Yu Hongyan, a collector of rosewood furniture and timber living in Beijing. “Unfortunately, China’s history of furniture-making is essentially a history of forest depletion.”

“中國過去30年用掉的”亞洲紅木資源，“是明清兩朝加起來的兩倍，”現居北京的紅木傢俱和木材收藏家於鴻雁說。“中國傢俱史大致也是一部採伐史。”

The surge in consumption has sent prices skyrocketing. In 2011, investigators found a rosewood bed in Shanghai retailing for $1 million. Prices for fine rosewood furniture quadrupled in China in 2013, according to the Chinese Redwood Committee, an industry association. And it predicts a “steady rise in prices” in 2014, a forecast that so far appears on track.

消費量的激增使價格一路飆升。2011年，調查人員發現，上海一張紅木牀的零售價高達100萬美元。行業協會中國紅木委的數據顯示，高級紅木傢俱的價格在2013上漲了三倍。該機構預測，紅木傢俱的價格2014年將穩中有升，這一預測迄今爲止似乎已經得到證實。

Cultural tradition is not the sole driver of the bullish rosewood market. Speculation is also playing a role. Newly rich Chinese need a safe place to park their fortunes, Mr. Yu said. “The housing market and the stock market have not been strong,” he said. “People now invest in rosewood as an alternative to stocks.”

文化傳統並非驅動紅木市場火爆行情的唯一因素，投機行爲也起到了一定作用。中國的新貴需要一個安全的地方來儲存財富，於鴻雁表示。“這幾年房市股市不怎麼好，因此紅木木材和傢俱開始作爲一種理財產品出現，”他說。“人們炒作紅木就像炒股票一樣。”

Siamese rosewood had been listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 1998. Then, last year, the species was listed as “endangered” on Appendix II to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or Cites, banning all timber exports without a Cites permit.

從1998年起，國際自然保護聯盟(International Union for Conservation of Nature)就把交趾黃檀列爲“脆弱”物種。去年，《瀕危野生動植物種國際貿易公約》（Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species，簡稱Cites）在附錄二中將其列爲“瀕危”物種，如果沒有Cites的許可，禁止所有交趾黃檀木材的出口。

However, the Cites ban only covers logs, sawed timber and veneers, a loophole in its enforcement that the Environmental Investigation Agency has urged Cites parties to close.

不過，Cites的禁令只涵蓋原木、鋸好的木材和木板，環境調查署已經敦促Cites的各締約方彌補這個漏洞。

“The traders now can crudely process the timber in the source country and then export it as furniture, circumventing the ban,” Mr. Yu said.

於鴻雁說，“商人可以在產地粗加工，然後作爲傢俱半成品進口，這樣就避開了Cites的禁令。”

Addressing the demand side of the trade, the agency’s report calls on China to halt imports of all rosewood from the Mekong region until the source countries produce evidence that any future exports will not threaten their Siamese rosewood populations and therefore are sustainable.

爲了應對木材貿易的需求，該機構的報告呼籲中國暫停所有從湄公河區域進口紅木的活動，直到來源國家拿出證據，證明未來的出口不會威脅到該國交趾黃檀的數量，因而是可持續的。