Race against time in the tropics

Summary
• An EC communication expected this month is like to recommend legislation to prevent imports of illegal wood.
• Estimates of illegal logging continue to rise in Asia, especially in Indonesia.
• The UK's sustainable construction initiatives are likely to increase demand for FSC-certified timber.
• During 2007, the TFT took its project portfolio of forests working towards FSC certification to over 3.1 million ha.

The tropics have approximately 625 million ha of forest, and form the habitat of 50% of all animal and plant life. The importance of these habitats cannot be underestimated, and keeping these areas intact or sustainably managed is important for the health of the planet as a whole.

Unfortunately, despite the importance of their forests, the majority of the estimated at 13 million ha per year of global deforestation occurs in the tropics. In addition to the negative impacts this causes on forest-dependent people, biodiversity, and developing economies, deforestation contributes up to 25% of greenhouse gas emissions released annually.

Some forest areas in Sub-Saharan Africa are progressing slowly towards sustainable management, and the support and commitment shown by the Conference of Ministers in Charge of Forests in Central Africa is proving to be a highly effective example of collaboration to address environmental issues. However, the economic and infrastructural weakness of this region means that real progress on afforestation and reforestation is still too slow.

Deforestation

Estimates of illegal logging continue to rise in Asia, in response to demand from external markets for high value logs and competing land use pressures for plantation and agriculture expansion and, as a consequence, the area of primary forest is declining rapidly. The greatest forest loss in the region is in Indonesia where almost 1.9 million ha are lost a year.

In Latin America the estimated loss of forest between 2000-2005 was 64 million ha. However, a small handful of countries like Costa Rica are making a real effort to retain primary forests and protect their biological diversity and the region has seen an increase of 2% in areas designated for conservation. Employment and trade are increasing in the forestry sector and exports have continued to grow, coinciding with areas of plantation forest growing at an annual rate of 1.6%.

Globally there is an increasing visibility of community forestry, but in terms of forest size it is still relatively insignificant. With less than 1% of the forest tenure in South-east Asia owned by communities, improvements to local rights and access to forest resources remain a priority. However, community groups can excel at sustainable forestry, albeit generally on a small scale. For example, the KHJL Co-operative in Sulawesi manages 565ha of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forest and to date remains the only source of FSC-certified teak in Indonesia.

Current trends

The European Commission (EC) has developed a number of measures to combat illegal logging, including FLEGT and is now also investigating the potential of EU-wide legislation to prevent the import of illegal wood. Last year the EC commissioned a public consultation and impact assessment which showed that there is a high level of support for such legislation. An EC communication, containing a recommendation for this legislation, is expected this month. Whether this takes the form of an import ban, or legislation styled on the US’s Lacey Act, which would make the sale of illegally sourced timber a criminal act has yet to be decided.

In the UK, Barry Gardiner, MP and prime minister’s special envoy on forestry, has proposed a private member's bill which specifies imprisonment for traders knowingly dealing in illegal wood.

Forest certification

A survey commissioned by the Forest Stewardship Council in January showed that consumer awareness of the FSC brand has risen over the last year to 23%, up from 19% in 2007, while the number of people buying FSC products rose from 10% to 17%. The recent leap came from the DIY timber market. In February the FSC estimated that the value of FSC-labelled sales worldwide were US$20bn, a 400% growth on 2005.

FSC sales are likely to experience further growth from initiatives promoting eco-rating, such as the UK’s new ‘eco-towns’, and the Code for Sustainable Homes. With 10,000 homes in five eco-towns to be built as a start, demand for certified sustainable timber use in home building will grow rapidly.

In March, just under 104 million ha of forest in total was certified by the FSC (www.fsc.org). This area is distributed across 79 countries, with only 13 million ha of the total designated as tropical. Clearly, both demand and supply of FSC-certified timber needs to continue increasing if sustainable forestry is to contribute towards combating illegal logging and providing alternatives to deforestation.

Signs of hope

But there are signs of hope. The TFT is seeing some companies in Africa making strides towards sustainability through forestry certification and legality via the Timber Trade Action Plan (TTAP). Executively managed by TFT, TTAP is a private sector initiative, assisting pioneering UK Timber Trade Federation members to establish and ensure verified legality within their supply chains. TTAP will work in the tropical timber producing countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guyana, Suriname, Indonesia, and Malaysia, assisting forest and timber companies to take practical steps towards producing and trading legally verified timber.

In Asia, the number of forest companies and communities alike, committed to working towards legality verification and certification also continues to grow. And, while our work is only beginning in South America, our solutions-oriented approach is being welcomed. New laws in importing countries on timber legality are positive; however, this does not always guarantee sustainability for the forest from a social and economic stance. So while legality verification forms a critical first step, TFT continues to promote verifiable third-party forest certification – such as FSC – to ensure the world's forests are managed for their long-term future and to maximise their value to people, wildlife and the environment.