Text 3 for questions number 72-73.

    Our new report 'A Major Liability' reveals that many logging operations in Papua New Guinea appear to be breaking the law - but continue to sell off timber from these climate-critical rainforests overseas. In 2016, PNG provided 29% of China's tropical log imports, making it the country's single largest supplier. But our investigation reveals how a large number of logging operations in Papua New Guinea (PNG) violate the law despite holding government-issued permits

    China is the world's largest consumer and manufacturer of wood and wood products. Yet it has no regulation to keep illegal timber from entering its borders. The risk of illegal timber from countries like PNG flooding China's markets has the potential to damage its reputation and major trade relationships as buyers in the U.S. and EU, which ban illegal timber imports, take action to protect themselves.

    This trade has profound implications for PNG as well. 70% of the country is covered by forest ecosystems that are home to some of the world's rarest plants and animals. The forest is also central to the cultural traditions and livelihoods of PNG's eight million people. By continuing to import tropical timber from PNG on such a scale, China is driving the destruction of a vulnerable and ancient forest. In A Major Liability, we draw on satellite imagery to show hundreds of apparent violations of the country's Forestry Act in major logging operations - all of which hold government permits and all of which continue to export timber.

    On paper, the legal system in PNG guarantees that indigenous Papua New Guineans have control over their forests. In reality, however, the government is responsible for a catastrophic failure to uphold these laws, and the forest sector has been plagued for decades by allegations of corruption and law-breaking.

    This forest and the lives it supports are under threat, with the deforestation rate in PNG unusually high in recent years in the past 5 years a lone, 640,000 hectares of forest were lost. And as the largest importer of timber from PNG, China's failure to introduce regulations to screen tim ber entering the country raises concerns that it is fuelling illegality in PNG's forestry sector and facilitating the entrance of illegal wood into its market.

The author begins paragraph 2 by stating China's reputation in the wood industry followed by an account of ....