
Illegal Lumber for China
In Indonesia, the rate of illegal logging has sometimes reached as high as 80 percent. From there,
logging syndicates plied what the eia calls "perhaps the largest and most destructive single trade route
of stolen timber in the world," from the forests of Indonesia's Papua Province (which comprises most of
the eastern half of New Guinea), often through Malaysia, where export documents are forged, to wood
factories on China's southern and central coast. It's indicative of the injustice perpetrated by illegal
logging that when prized tropical hardwood trees called merbau were cut down in Papua in 2004, locals
were paid $11 per cubic meter; when the logs reached China, their value increased to $240 per cubic
meter; by the time they arrived in the United States or Europe as flooring, they brought $2,288 per cubic
meter. Most of the profit falls to high-living timber barons running smuggling syndicates out of Jakarta,
Singapore, and Hong Kong. They receive support from Indonesian military and police officials who often
invest in smuggling operations themselves or, if not, are bribed to facilitate them.
Can bribing be eliminated by using robots as policemen or will they merely bribe human technicians to
modify the robots?
Definitely Yes, bribing can be eliminated by using robots.
Yes, bribing can be greatly reduced by using robots.
No, it is not worth the expense to use robots in an attempt to reduce bribing.
Definitely No, you are wasting your time trying to use robots to reduce bribing.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/01/the-last-empire.html