Logging in tropical forests is selective but the timber cutters usually prioritise the biggest and oldest trees.

砍伐热带森林是有选择性的，但伐木工人通常优先砍伐最大最古老的树木。

youdao

Tropical rain forests are diminishing at an alarming rate because of the human need for food and demands for timber, energy, minerals, and other resources.

由于人类的食物需要以及对木材、能源、矿物质和其他资源的需求，热带雨林数量正在以令人吃惊的速度减少。

youdao

That is the upside of growing global demand for tropical food, timber and biofuels: pressure for Western standards to be adopted up the supply chain.

上述趋势反映了全球对热带食物、木材和生物燃料需求良性的一面，那就是向产业链施压，迫使其采用西方标准。

youdao

But only about 15% of timber globally, and less than 2% of tropical timber, is covered by it.

ECONOMIST: Western consciences can do only so much to conserve forests

As the light fades, lorries without number plates arrive at the timber yards loaded with what locals say is illegally felled tropical timber.

BBC: How illegal logging in Brazil's Amazon turns 'legal'

The answer is not to promote boycotts of tropical timber or insist, as the Forest Stewardship Council does, that the same forest management rules apply to planted softwood as rainforests.

ECONOMIST: Letters