ABSTRACT
The tropical forests of the world are rich in highly-prized, ‘luxury’ woods such as teak, mahogany and balsa, among dozens of others. Extracting this timber is a high-profit, fast-moving big business. Most commercial logging operations in the tropics are monopolized by a handful of multinational timber conglomerates based in France, West Germany, the UK and Japan. They follow in the footsteps of the colonial traders in tropical timber, and in many ways replicate patterns of colonial exploitation-marked by utter disregard for the environment of Third World countries, perceived primarily as suppliers of raw materials to meet the ‘refined tastes of the ‘developed’ world.
