Geneva convention

Summary
• The second International Timber Trade Federation Day took place in Geneva on October 8-9.
• It was organised by The Forest Trust and sponsored by DfID.
• The increasing complexity of laws and certification is shifting demand in Brazil to alternative building materials.
• A complex supply chain in Indonesia makes environmental documentation almost impossible.

Earlier this month more than 100 representatives of the world’s timber trade organisations concluded that buying wood had to be easier. The difficulties in doing so and the solutions to overcome them were the focus of “Solving buyers' needs in a tough global market”, the second International Timber Trade Federation Day held in Geneva on October 8-9 and organised by The Forest Trust (TFT), formerly the Tropical Forest Trust, and sponsored by the Department for International Development.

Opening the conference, TFT chief executive Scott Poynton detailed the various considerations for wood buyers, from price, quality and service to design. Getting these right meant profits for the buyer but the large downside risks made buyers inherently conservative, he said. Overlay this with complex rules on certification and reputational exposure and the buyer stayed with what they knew – and this did not help getting more certified or verified legal product into the market place.

The response, continued Mr Poynton, had been voluntary, through schemes like the Timber Trade Action Plan and various responsible purchasing policies, but these had not been enough and various legal responses were now in place or on the horizon, such as the US Lacey Act and the EU’s due diligence proposal. But, he said, a tension remained as many buyers simply weren’t paying attention and, as a result, many producers did not receive the demand or price they needed.

Chatham House illegal logging expert Duncan Brack developed these themes explaining the latest state of play on the EU’s proposal for a regulation on due diligence. US hardwood exporter Jamey French, of Northland Forest Products, then explained how the US Lacey Act was beginning to bite in the States.

European Timber Trade Federation secretary-general André de Boer revealed just how difficult the economic situation continued to be in Europe but demonstrated that, nevertheless, the drivers for certified and legally verified wood were resulting in increasing amounts of certified and verified wood in the market place.

The presentations from producer countries explained further the particular difficulties of various areas of the tropics. Marco Tutti, from ABIMCI in Brazil, pointed out the steps private and public sectors were taking to stop illegal logging in the absence of demand and high domestic wood consumption, adding that the increasing complexity of laws and certification rules was shifting demand to competing building products.

In Indonesia, as TFT’s Dan Lewis explained, there was a complex supply chain, with many smaller companies reliant on getting the price, quality and service right. These, he said, were the critical issues for business, rather than environmental concerns. Overlaying documentary systems on these supply chains was near impossible, he added, as the constraints of short-term logging concessions, geography, forest quality, factory capacity, price and demand mitigated against their introduction. Supply chains had to get simpler, he concluded.

In powerful presentations from Lucas van der Walt of DLH and Wayne Woof of Sabah Forest Industries, delegates heard how two leading companies had overcome these difficulties to introduce certification in Democratic Republic of Congo and Sabah, Malaysia. Mr der Walt made a passionate plea for the good news story the industry could tell to actually be told.

In summary, there was an encouraging global consensus on the problems in getting more certified product in the supply chain and the growing collective response. After all the discussion about describing, marketing and persuading customers to buy certified legal and sustainable product, the key message for me was to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.