Investigations by the Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights and the Australian Conservation Foundation have revealed that the government often persuades villagers to give up communal land for timber production in exchange for new roads and schools that never materialise.
Most of the logging companies are from Malaysia and it is claimed they use corrupt police officers to threaten those who oppose what they are doing.
China takes much of the illegal timber for its own hungry domestic market and its flooring and furniture export industry for Europe and North America.
