Borderlines: Vietnam's Booming Furniture Industry and Timber Smuggling in the Mekong Region

Vietnam has become a hub for processing huge quantities of unlawfully-logged timber from across Indochina, threatening some of the last intact forests in the region, a major new report reveals. Much of the illegally-imported wood is made into furniture for export to consumer markets in Europe and the US. Undercover investigations by the UK-based Environmental Investiagtions Agency (EIA) and Indonesian NGO Telapak have revealed how Vietnam's booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation throughout the Mekong river region, particularly in neightbouring Laos.