China's state-run news agency says the country plans to work more with Burma to control illegal logging near their shared border.
Xinhua reports today that a spokesman Cao Qingyao for China's State Forestry Administration acknowledges some Chinese citizens and companies engage in unauthorized forestry activities in Burma. He says the countries have discussed how to handle the problem twice since last year.
He says the government in China's Yunnan province, on the Burmese border, has not approved any logging activities inside Burma or permitted timber imports from the country since March 2006.
The spokesman says China has investigated 81 cases of timber smuggling from Burma since 2004.
The British-based environmental group Global Witness estimates that more than 300 million dollars' worth of illegal lumber shipments from Burma entered China in 2005. The group says China has since strengthened its efforts to stop logging trucks coming from Burma.
