The WWF has attacked Russia’s far eastern logging operations for endangering tigers and leopards.
The conservation organisation said the export trade to Japan, worth US$700m a year, is plagued with timber smuggling and “cut-and-run” operations, fragmenting the habitat of the Siberian tiger and Amur leopard.
Its study also found logging is destroying Siberian cedar pine, Korean pine, chestnut and oak.
The WWF is urging the Russian and Japanese governments to make an agreement ensuring exports come from legal and sustainable sources.
