31.   More demands are being made to ensure that tropical timber entering the global market is sustainably harvested.

32.   Restrictions or boycotts of tropical timber does not only make these forests worthless as a source of income but also fails to reduce deforestation in developing countries.

33.   The EU, in this sense, has been quite cooperative, except for its views on our exports of tropical timber.

34.   The minister said Asean had so far been able to withstand several attempts to discredit tropical timber by way of adopting common positions on international forestry and timber issues.

35.   The tropical timber labelling issue, for example, is still hurting exports and the industry in Asia.

36.   To some, this will be seen as an aggressive measure to boost the export of tropical timber.

37.   We can expect these countries to step up their campaigns against tropical timber.

38.   In particular, Indonesian forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate, often to create plantations of tropical timber trees.

39.   Mamaloni said his government would also be reconsidering a moratorium on the logging of tropical timber introduced by the previous government.