Conservation groups have welcomed a decision by governments last Friday to impose strict measures on the trade of a valuable tropical hardwood known as ramin, which could help save the endangered orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger. at the 13th Conference of Cites Parties, held in Bangkok.

The listing of ramin in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species' (Cites) Appendix II was adopted by consensus of all 166 member countries

''We are absolutely ecstatic and we think it is an extremely important decision. It's a landmark decision not only because of ramin but also for other species which live in the forest,'' Susan Lieberman, WWF International's head of delegation to the conference, told IPS.

Cites, a UN treaty that has been in effect for nearly 30 years, subjects the international trade of 30,000 species of animals and plants, including 49 tree species, to varying degrees of control through listing in its three appendices according to the degree of threat and protection required.

Appendix I applies the most stringent controls on species threatened with extinction, Appendix II regulates trade in species that could potentially lead to extinction and Appendix III includes species listed by an ''individual'' country in an effort to enlist international cooperation to control trade from their country.

Forests where ramin grow are also home to endangered species such as orang-utans and Sumatran tigers, which are losing their habitat because of clearing for agriculture and impacts of illegal logging.

''The spiral of decline of this species had to be stopped. The Cites member governments responded positively to Indonesia's request, and now listing of ramin in Appendix II is the appropriate response as it will require global cooperation among both exporter and importer countries,'' added Lieberman.

Glimmer of hope

Greenpeace International also welcomed Friday's decision and said it was heartening to see Cites trying to regulate the global commercial timber trade.

''I think it offers a glimmer of hope for many species. But there is a lot of work to do,'' said Tim Birch, Greenpeace International's forest campaigner.

''The fate of the orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger still hangs in the balance. Governments involved in the international trade of ramin timber now need to convert words into urgent action,'' added Birch.

WWF says that in the last century, the number of orang-utans fell by 91 percent in Borneo and Sumatra. Globally, it says, there were thought to be somewhere between 45,000 and 60,000 orang-utans as recently as 1987.

But by 2001 that number had fallen by virtually half, to an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 of the animals, more than half of them living outside protected areas.

The future of the Sumatran tiger is even bleaker. According to WWF the Sumatran tiger could become extinct within a decade, due to poaching and illegal logging. At least 66 tigers have been killed on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra since 1999, and between 400 and 500 now remain.

Sumatra is home to the last surviving species of tiger in Indonesia. ''It's not an exaggeration to say that orang-utans and tigers are clinging on to their lives. The decision on ramin can either help these species survive another decade or help seal their fates,'' said Carroll Muffett, director of international programmes of the Washington-based Defenders of Wildlife, before the Cites decision to upgrade ramin's listing.

Ramin is a blond coloured tropical hardwood, native to the fragile peat-swamp forests of Indonesia and Malaysia. As the most valuable wood species in these ecosystems, ramin trees are usually the first target of illegal loggers, and selective logging of these trees is often the first step leading to forest clearance and incursion into national parks.

According to the Indonesian conservation group Telapak, processed ramin can fetch up to US$1,000 dollars per cubic metre and usually ends up in private homes as window blinds and baby cots, and in snooker and pool halls all over the world as cue sticks.

The greatest demand comes from countries such as the United States, Italy, Japan and Britain.

Malaysia consents

The attempt by Indonesia to upgrade the status of ramin from Cites Appendix III to Appendix II is not surprising as it struggles to control the trade - a large part of it illegal.

In 2001, after the Appendix III listing, the Indonesian government banned exports of ramin logs, sawn timber and veneer sheets in response to decline of the species in the wild, lack of proper harvest management and high level of illegal export.

But according to the Asian Conservation Alliance Task Force - a coalition of 30 non-governmental organisations from 10 Asian countries - around 70,000 cubic metres of banned Indonesian ramin are smuggled each year to the Far East in as many as 2,000 shipping containers - from either Singapore or Malaysia.

Being the only other ramin-exporting country in South-east Asia, Malaysia earlier took exception to Indonesia's request to Cites for an Appendix II listing of the hardwood.

But Telapak says much of Malaysia's ramin forests have been logged over at least once and regeneration has been poor.

''To make good the shortfall in raw ramin, in the late 1990s the industry in Malaysia turned to neighbouring Indonesia,'' said Telapak's forest campaigner Yayat Afianto.

''By the time the CITES listing came into effect (in 2001 for Appendix III), independent industry experts were estimating that as much as 60 percent of the ramin being processed and exported from Malaysia was being sourced from Indonesia,'' added Afianto.

Surprisingly on Friday, Malaysia did not scuttle Indonesia's proposal to the Cites conference and gave its consent to the Appendix II listing.

''Despite all previous attempts to block international conservation efforts for ramin, the Malaysian government announced in the meeting that it would support the listing and would make all efforts to enforce regulations,''' said Greenpeace International in a statement.

''This announcement follows new evidence released by Greenpeace this week of Malaysia's involvement in the illegal imports from Indonesia of this valuable timber species,'' it added.

On Thursday, Greenpeace South-east Asia told the media that they had evidence that five ports on the west of peninsular Malaysia, just across the Malacca Straits, were openly importing illegal ramin from Indonesia.

''In a three-week period, just last month, we found 15 shipments we could confirm (of illegal ramin). And this is just for two ports (in Malaysia) just adjacent to the Sumatra coastline,'' Alex Ryan, Greenpeace South-east Asia's forest researcher, told reporters.