Forests of significant economic importance are found primarily in northeastern East Asia and Southeast Asia. The softwood forests of northeastern East Asia cover most of Japan and parts of North Korea. Trees grown there are used for construction lumber and to produce pulp for paper. Tropical hardwood forests cover all Southeast Asian countries and the south central part of China, several places in India, and the northern part of Iran.
Trees grown in those forests are used primarily for fuel wood and charcoal, although an increasing quantity of special quality woods are cut for export as lumber. Nearly 80 percent of the world's hardwood log exports in the early 1990's came from Malaysia. Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar export large quantities of forestry products.
Overexploitation of hardwoods and conversion of forest lands for other uses have become serious concerns. Rates of forest conversion are most rapid in continental Southeast Asia, averaging about 1.5 percent a year. Deforestation has important local, regional, and global consequences, ranging from increased soil and land degradation to greater food insecurity, escalating carbon emissions, and loss of biodiversity. Small scale, poor farmers clearing land for agriculture to meet food needs and the gathering of wood to be used for cooking account for roughly two-thirds of the deforestation in Southeast Asia. Commercial logging and urban expansion account for most of the remaining deforestation.
See also: Slash
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