I am pleased to read about the export ban on ramin timber, an Indonesian hard wood, and other wood products from Indonesia. I hope its implementation will be as effective as the officials intend. In Indonesia, and many Asian countries, what is on paper and takes place can be horribly different.

The world can no longer sustain its appetite for exotic timber at the expense of dwindling wildlife habitats. The sight of lorries carting away freshly-logged rainforest timber on Malaysian roads, many of the huge trees are obviously hundreds of years old, is painful to watch. Rainforest trees are more valuable alive than dead, and should not be killed.

Long-time rainforest timber-devouring nations like the US, Japan and European countries should begin to educate their people about the negative impact of their consuming habits on the environment and wildlife. It is hard to justify using rainforest timber when plantation timber is as good and serves the purpose.

If the US, a huge consumer of tropical hardwoods, does not change its appetite for 'wildlife timber', it deserves to rank among those who trade in endangered wildlife species since the trees form an integral part of the wild animals' habitat. Why criticise the Chinese for eating wildlife body parts of e.g. tigers and bears when Americans are consuming the trees that make up their homes and support the wildlife the animals depend on? Both activities are equally deplorable.

While the US likes to dictate to others about human rights, and I think it is right they do so, I would like to see them act more responsibly and less selfishly when it comes to something that affects ordinary Americans. The refusal of President George W Bush to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming because of the negative impact on American industry and "the need to keep American homes warm" smacks of hypocrisy and selfishness.

Australia's ' hang on the US coat-tail ' example and lack of initiative on global warming is also disappointing. While on human rights, I think it is wrong to allow timber companies to pillage the trees that forest dwellers consider as part of their homeland. Yet, rainforest-timber-consuming countries do not realise they have indirectly contributed to the destruction of the rainforests. Once a primary rainforest is lost, it is gone forever. It is not enough to ban the export of rainforest products; it must be banned locally as well, especially as Indonesia is a populous country and local consumption may be significant.

Japan's killing of whales on the pretext of scientific research and improper bribing of Pacific island nations so they will vote against Australia's proposal for an international whale sanctuary are equally condemnable. It reflects an innate national self indulgence and lack of honesty, like its efforts in re-writing and re-interpreting its role and atrocities in Asia 50 years ago and refusal to compensate 'comfort women' victims. Sadly, many countries are ruled by self-interests and not a genuine concern for the environment, especially other people's.

I imagine when contemporary conservation-minded Americans see old Vietnam war footage of US bombers devastating the rainforests of Vietnam and Cambodia it will give them something to think about. The large-scale destruction of pristine Asian rainforests is conveniently lost in American memory and the unfortunate Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, suffer in silence and American injustice. And as usual, when business people collude with each other and corrupt government officials on an international scale to exploit nature's resources, the poor in poor countries suffer most.

In a free trade world the law of supply and demand will decide if an economic activity thrives or dies. If the demand for rainforest timber is stopped, there is a greater chance our dwindling wildlife could be saved.

I used to see Malaysian rainforest timber used as trusses in new Western Australian homes being built. A lot of timber cuts is thrown away and it is sad to know an old and glorious tree from the beautiful rainforest died for a futile purpose. Who knows how many native birds, insects and animals (who had no options) lost their homes so that humans (who have many options) could build new homes - and use wood wastefully?

Globalisation should not be another excuse for the rich to indulge themselves at the expense of the poorer and developing nations through the exploitation of their natural resources. It will only impoverish them - the poor and underprivileged - further. Rainforests are important to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia who rely on their contribution to tourism. But if we only see nature from an anthropocentric and economic purview, we will forget that rainforests mean survival for our fellow wildlife inhabitants on earth and perhaps even guarantee the survival of our own species. They have as much right to the rainforests as humans.

Recent flash floods in Thailand and Malaysia are warning signs the land is wounded and sick and unless de-forestation from logging and indiscreet development is stopped, these countries will turn into swamps. The land bleeds with the floods from the rains and cries for justice. With greater markets created by the 'consumerist and wasteful mentality' of the world's number one and two consumers, the US and Japan, every poor country's natural resources will be at the mercy of their voracious and insatiable appetites for hardwoods.

We should all try to be better conservationists than consumers. Redeeming, restoring and conserving our dwindling rainforest reserves and wildlife should be a worldwide concern, not just that of the countries that possess them.

A recent report by Dr Kua Kia Soong on the destruction of the Bukit Putih Forest Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary is an indictment of those who should know better. A rainforest reserve, especially one so near an urban area, is more valuable both ecologically and economically to a country, than another housing estate development.

In Malaysia the number of tigers in the wild is less than 500. When the genetic pool dwindles this sub-species will join the roll of extinct species. Malaysians then will have to replace the tiger on its national emblem with the ringgit symbol, since it allowed the love of money to destroy the tiger.