Market transformation required

As reported in this issue of TTJ, one of Europe's largest timber fairs took place in Nantes this summer. From June 4-6, 530 exhibitors showed an international audience a wide variety of products made of wood at the Carrefour International du Bois. This formed an excellent platform for the IDH-powered European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC) to make its debut.

The STTC was founded at the beginning of this year to act on the fact that about 13 million hectares of tropical forests worldwide are being deforested annually, often illegally. This is about the size of Greece.

There has been a growing awareness on the environmental and social dimensions of trade and the role that markets play in meeting the urgent call for a transition towards sustainable forest management in the tropics.

Several governments, trade associations and companies in Europe have introduced sustainability initiatives, action plans and legal measures. The number of private and public sustainable procurement policies is growing worldwide. They are increasingly using market instruments, such as voluntary certification schemes (for example, FSC and PEFC), to demonstrate the sustainability of the tropical timber and timber products they use.

Much progress has been made by the private sector as well as the public sector to stimulate sustainable forest management, and we notice that certification and licensing systems have been very successful in northern regions.

However, certification in tropical regions - where good governance and sustainable forest management practices are most urgently needed - is clearly lagging behind. Only approximately 6% of tropical forests have been certified sustainably managed, for example.

A critical success factor to mainstream sustainable forest management in the tropics is still missing: major market endorsement and demand for FLEGT-licensed and sustainably produced timber.

Hence a new phase of market transformation was required: one that emphasises the complementarity of legality measures and sustainability initiatives, and that helps shift tropical timber and timber product markets towards mainstream sustainability rapidly.

Right now there is a unique opportunity for a demand-side intervention in Europe to make sustainable forest management the norm by bundling legality measures and sustainability initiatives and by bundling demand for FLEGT-licensed and sustainable timber.

The European STTC consists of four working groups, each of them tackling a different area. One is focused on promotion and communication, to improve tropical timber's market image and raise awareness of certified tropical timber availability.

This group also provides the working group Business Encounters with materials that can be shown on the various fairs at which the European STTC is present as a coalition.

The third is dedicated to legality and sustainability and the fourth to technical issues, notably increasing interest and awareness in lesser-known tropical species, life-cycle analysis and due diligence. To get back to the Carrefour du Bois, also thanks to STTC participant Le Commerce du Bois and partners ETTF and ATIBT, several STTC and tropical timber promotion materials, prepared by the working group, were to be found across the entire fair. As a consequence, more than 10,000 visitors came across the message 'buy sustainable tropical timber' several times throughout their visit.

This formed the fuel for many conversations with companies interested in joining the coalition. The fair was a success and a first step towards a continuation of a good collaboration.