Oct 20, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. Chinese logging companies are plundering vast swathes of Burma's northern forests in collusion with Burmese military and ethnic militias, despite Beijing's international commitment to crack down on illegal logging, an environmental group said. Global Witness, a UK agency that investigates exploitation of natural resources in conflict zones, said about 95% of China's wood imports from Burma were illegal, resulting in an annual loss of about $250 million to the Burmese exchequer. "It's a trade that is completely out of control," Susanne Kempel, of Global Witness, said in Bangkok. In a new report – A Choice for China - Global Witness calls for Beijing to halt the timber trade along its frontier with Burma until it can verify that all logs crossing the border have been cut legally. "What we are asking for is that China's central government closes down this border for the timber trade until it can be sure the timber imported is legal," Ms. Kempel said. Burma's northern Kachin state, which shares a long border with China's Yunnan province, is still considered one of the world's most significant remaining bio-diversity areas. But this rare ecological environment has been under heavy pressure from illegal logging, mainly by Chinese companies, ever since ethnic militias signed ceasefire agreements with Rangoon more than a decade ago, ending open hostilities in the region. The Burmese army and ethnic militias like the Kachin Independence Organisation control various parts of the state and appear to be in a race for the profits that come from allowing more than 100 Yunnan-based Chinese logging companies to operate in the areas. "It's a muddy picture," said Ms. Kempel. "Everybody takes what they can before there is nothing left." Although the Chinese-Burma border has a single border crossing for the legal export of timber, Global Witness researchers found that Burmese logs were hauled into China at numerous places, all of which had checkpoints staffed by Chinese customs officers. "This is out in the open," Ms Kempel said. "It's easy to see and it's taxed by Chinese authorities all along the border." In 2001 Beijing gave a commitment to do more to stop forest crimes such as illegal logging. But China, the world's second largest wood importer after Japan, has a rapacious appetite for wood to feed its domestic market and its large wood furniture export industry; in 2003 it exported $3 billion worth of wood products to the US. China imports wood from around the world, much of it illegally logged, according to Global Witness. Timber from Burma accounts for just 2-3% of the total.