Timber Legality and Sustainability
Specialized Sub-forum 1
on Timber Legality and Sustainability:
Navigating Strategies to Ensure Timber Legality and Sustainability in Disrupted Global Timber Trade
Time and Venue
Time: 23 September 2026, 09:00-13:30
Venue: Room 1
Co-organized by
ITTO (International Tropical Timber Organization)
ETTF (European Timber Trade Federation - TBC)
Background
We are witnessing increasing uncertainties in the global economy that navigate high disruption driven by geopolitical rifts, trade tensions, and regional conflicts. Key impacts include supply chain disruptions, rising oil process hiking up trade and production costs, and shifting manufacturing strategies. As a result, global timber industries must deal with many difficulties, and challenges on several interacting market factors can cause further deforestation and forest degradation. Policy action, therefore, requires using multiple policy interventions simultaneously. Ensuring legal and sustainable supply chains of tropical timber requires optimizing the utilization and improving the productivity of production forests, efficient timber processing, supportive national policies and regulations, strong human resources and a robust platform for consumer-producer collaborations. A key requirement of legal and sustainable timber supply chains is compliance with all relevant legal frameworks.
When timber is legally and sustainably produced, processed, traded, and used, the industry and trading sector enhance the value of timber and timber products along the supply chains. The economic viability of sustainable tropical forestry is often marginal at best, with returns from sustainable timber production and other marketable goods and services comparing poorly to those of alternate land uses.
Terms of Reference
Purpose and Scope
This specialized sub-forum will discuss current disruption issues related to global timber legal and sustainable supply among different stakeholders. Understanding the issues will support stakeholder readiness from both timber consumer and producer countries enabling their responses to challenges and opportunities encountered.
Producer countries need to consider strengthening their policies and regulations, production infrastructures efficiency, and quality human resources to ensure strong resilience capacity to trade legal and sustainable timber along legal and sustainable supply chains. Likewise, consumer countries simultaneously need to examine impacts of market challenges towards the resilience of timber trade and industry in meeting the requirements of agreed international trade rules. At the same time, the opportunity to utilize and develop advanced adaptive technology and innovations should be explored to support addressing challenges and opportunities caused by the dynamics of timber trade disruptions.
Session 1: Global perspectives on current legal and sustainable supply chains disruptions and the solutions
Session 1 will discuss the dynamics of timber and timber products trade with regard to current global disruption that needs to be dealt with and anticipated for its development by all actors along the supply chains. Regulations are of course essential to build legal and sustainable supply chains, but trade regulations in major timber consuming markets need to be reasonable, implementable and attainable where producer countries need support and investment in capacity building to allow continued market access.
The extent of the impacts of global disruption will affect industry and trade economies in both producer and consumer countries. This will lead to a synthesis of lessons that can inform the development and implementation of timber trade policies, strategies and action plans by governments, private sector, (including SMEs), civil society organizations, and local communities.
Session 2: Innovations best practice in response to evolved challenges of legal and sustainable timber supply chains
Session 2 will highlight the role of advanced technologies and innovations to support the stakeholders along the supply chains of timber and timber products to address challenges and opportunities of timber trade to minimize its negative impacts.
Technology and governance innovation are driving sustainable use of tropical wood and legal supply chains for wood products globally. Discussion in the session will bolster stakeholders of timber trade to adopt technology and innovation best practices to enhance forest industry and trade performance.
Key Topics
Global perspectives on current legal and sustainable supply chains disruptions and solutions
- A scenario to survive for forest industry sector amid the global disruptions.
- Dealing with global disruptions for the resilience of European timber industry and trade.
- How to deal with global disruptions? Australian forestry policy perspective.
- How to deal with global disruptions? Indonesian forestry policy perspective.
- How to deal with global disruptions? North American forestry policy perspective.
Innovations best practice in response to evolved challenges of legal and sustainable timber supply chains
- Response to global disruptions: Strengthening forest enforcement activities at log export points through innovation initiatives and stakeholder collaboration.
- Response to global disruptions: The Use of block-chains technology to support legal and sustainable supply in global uncertainty.
- Response to global disruptions: Development of innovative integrated timber data in the Asia-Pacific for enhancing timber sector resilience.
- Response to global disruptions: Technology-driven approaches to legal and sustainable timber supply chain in the Philippines.
Participants
120-150 participants are expected to represent government, business actors, trade and industry organizations, academics, and civil society. Ensuring diversity among stakeholders present at this event will allow for fruitful debate and strengthening collaboration and partnership among stakeholders.
Contact Person
ITTO Secretariat:
Mr. Tetra Yanuariadi – tetra@itto.int
Ms. Elsie Yang – yang@itto.int
Mr. Li Qiang – li@itto.int