More internationally-co-ordinated action is needed to combat illegal logging, but new measures must be carefully framed to avoid a challenge from the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
These are among the conclusions of a report from the independent think tank, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA).
Controlling the international trade in illegally logged timber and wood products says governments and industry must act on illegal logging, not just to protect the forest and timber resource, but also because it is increasingly an issue of public and government concern.
The report says that effective monitoring of the timber trade is a prerequisite to tackling the problem. But ‘movement documents’ like those used by CITES are not up to the job. ‘Comprehensive chain of custody monitoring is necessary to guarantee legality,’ it says, adding that the experience of the Forest Stewardship Council and other certification systems would be valuable in establishing an internationally accepted chain of custody framework.
More ‘systematic collection of data on export and import of timber and wood products’ should be part of the package.
And chain of custody monitoring must be underpinned by controls – preferably internationally agreed – on imports of ‘illegal’ timber products. To avoid a WTO challenge, these should disrupt trade as little as possible. That means implementing controls based on eco-labelling, or through government procurement policies rather than import bans.
‘The more it can be shown that less disruptive measures have been attempted and not proved effective,’ says the RIIA, ‘the greater the chance more trade-disruptive measures have of being found acceptable.’
