bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Peter Michael

Loggers, speedboat drivers and human mules are plundering park for Buddhist pines and making a mint on the mainland

Tree smuggling by mainland poachers - who earn between $8,000 and $15,000 a tree - operating out of illegal logging camps hidden in remote coastal scrubland has devastated parts of Sai Kung Country Park, police say.

Revealing the scale of destruction on isolated pockets of mountain forest, joint taskforce detectives yesterday detailed a 'highly organised' smuggling operation involving teams of loggers, speedboat drivers and human mules ferrying the uprooted trees across rugged mountain ridges.

Fuelling the lucrative trade is the Buddhist pine tree or Podocarpus macrophylla, revered among mainlanders for its supposedly mystical properties.

Some cultivated plants could demand more than $50,000, officers said.

Members of the joint taskforce on a marine boat patrol  pointed out the rabbit warren of small encampments used by the illegal loggers near Tai Long Wan beach.

Concealed in the thick undergrowth, the bush camps are littered with sleeping gear, cigarette packets, water bottles, plastic sheeting, gas burners, rice sacks and spare clothing.

Lined up on the beach were more than 20 Buddhist pine trees ready to be collected and shipped back to the mainland.

Most were about 4m long and freshly trimmed, with some bound together in bundles.

Across the ridgeline and clearly visible from the water, large sections of the steep forest escarpment of the Yin Tze Ngam area are pockmarked with numerous diggings  and criss-crossed with trails slashed into the brush undergrowth.

'The damage is very substantial ... it has to be seen to be believed,' said Detective Chief Inspector Chris Richards of the Marine Regional Crime Headquarters.

'Swathes of the country park have been cut down over the past two years in what is a highly organised smuggling operation.

'And when you look at the huge demand for these trees back on the mainland, where they are a protected species, someone is making an enormous amount of cash.'

There are indications the operation is spreading to Cape Collinson.

Chief Inspector Richards said it was not unusual for up to 10 illegal immigrants to be deployed at the beach camps, sometimes for up to three days at a time.

They work mostly at night and deploy 'spotters' at observation posts to act as lookouts for police raids.

This year 45 aliens have been arrested in eight cases of pine poaching, compared with 29 arrests from nine cases last year. Most of them claimed they were from Guizhou and hired on a wage of 60 to 80 yuan a day.

Amid calls for better deterrent measures, nine illegal immigrants were sentenced to 15 months each on charges of theft and illegal staying on November 20 in the heftiest sentences yet handed down by Hong Kong courts.

Greenpeace spokesman Martin Baker said there needed to be closer cross-border links between authorities to combat the problem.

'It is going to become more of a problem unless the government works more closely with mainland authorities to stem the flow,' he said.



Tree smugglers wreak havoc at Sai Kung