Taiwan's Silent Forest Wars

It was a cool April day when Hoang Van Doan and four Vietnamese compatriots wandered into Taiwan’s tranquil Alishan forests. Two years earlier, Hoang had left his hometown in Vietnam’s rural Ha Tinh province for the promise of a stable income in the factories of Taiwan. Now 29, he had left the industrial sector behind for promises of fresh air, flexible hours, and quick cash. The new job promised to help him support his wife and 2-year-old son back in Vietnam, but there was a catch: the work was highly illegal. Hoang had found himself embroiled in one of Taiwan’s most dangerous professions: logging the island’s dwindling old-growth forests. And today, he would not make it out of the forest alive.

Hundreds of poachers – colloquially referred to as shan laoshu, or “mountain rats” – are arrested every year in pursuit of the coveted wood of Taiwan’s endangered old-growth trees, such as the Hinoki cypress and the incense cedar. The trees, which are indigenous to Taiwan, are craved by collectors for their sturdy, aromatic wood and their oils, said to have healing qualities in traditional Chinese medicine. Much of the timber that escapes the mountains is sold on to shop owners in bustling wood art markets. There, the contraband gets mixed with legally sourced timber, rendering it difficult for authorities to bust sellers, but easy for wood art connoisseurs to get the precious pieces they crave.