Timber Legality and Sustainability

Specialized Sub-forum on

Timber Legality and Sustainability -

Responses to Emerging Timber Trade Requirements

Time and Venue

 Time: 12 September 2024, 09:00-13:30

 Venue: 1/F Ballroom I, MGM COTAI, Macao SAR, China

Organizer

 International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)

 Background

Forest-based enterprises and international timber trade add value to tropical forests and can contribute significantly to sustainable economies and livelihoods. For decades, tropical timber has grappled with numerous challenges and even threats as it struggles to maintain its stake in the international timber markets.  It is now essential and urgent for tropical timber producing countries and the international tropical timber trade to adopt a positive and proactive approach to addressing the priority challenges of weak forest governance through clear and coherent strategies for reforming and strengthening forest governance and reining in illegal logging and trade more efficiently and effectively. This should form the basis for preparing the readiness of tropical timber producers to respond to emerging requirements of the international timber trade.

Tropical timber producer countries need to regularly assess the situation of competitiveness of their products in international markets to ensure continued maintenance of production and trade of sustainably managed tropical timber and timber products. Ensuring sustainable tropical timber trade requires optimizing the utilization and improving productivity of production forests, which will, in turn, benefit conservation and protected forests, in terms of reducing pressures and disturbances. A key requirement of sustainability is compliance with all relevant legal frameworks. When timber is legally and sustainably produced, processed, traded, and used, the industry enhances the value of standing forests, greatly reducing the risk of deforestation, and making a major contribution to the achievement of the sustainable development goals. 

The perception that illegal operations are widespread in tropical forests taints the image of the tropical timber sector in certain major import markets and while some markets have responded by tightening requirements for legality and sustainability to provide assurance for buyers and consumers for effective action in this regard. Concerned over illegal logging and its associated trade contribution to global deforestation and forest degradation and wishing not to be associated any longer with these persistent problems, major consumers have decided to enact laws to regulate their market, giving preference to legality and sustainability.

This specialized sub-forum will discuss issues related to timber legality and sustainability among different stakeholders in the context of the “EU Regulation 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council”, or EUDR for short. This regulation will have a significant impact on the tropical timber trade in EU, and it also has serious implications in tropical timber producing countries. The producer countries need to strengthen their monitoring and controlling system to ensure only legal and sustainable timber traded along supply chains by means of promoting the development of national schemes forest certification. 

 Purpose and Scope

The purpose of this specialized sub-forum is to share experiences and to learn from different points of views voiced by actors along the supply chains of timber and timber products on aspects related international timber trade requirements and national forest certification initiatives being developed by producer countries to ensure legality and sustainability of traded timber. Promoting the development of national schemes forest certification will facilitate respective authorities and business actors to deal with imposed trade requirements at both national and global scale. 

The specialized sub-forum will be divided into two sessions: 1) Potential impacts on and responses to tropical timber producers towards emerging timber trade requirements (EUDR); 2) Updates on national forest certification schemes to support legal and sustainable supply chains.

Session 1: Potential impacts on and responses to tropical timber producers towards emerging timber trade requirements (EUDR)

The wood product sector now faces significant challenges with the implementation of the EUDR. In-depth discussions are already underway in many countries and sectors on how best to meet the requirements of the EUDR without adding unnecessary costs or leading to discrimination against certain operators.

Session 1 will update the status of producer countries’ readiness towards the full implementation of EUDR. Regulation is of course essential to build legal and sustainable supply chains, but trade regulations in major timber consuming markets need to be consistent, and tropical countries need support and investment in capacity building to allow their continuing market access. There is a need for smart regulations that do not unnecessarily add transaction costs that might undermine the relative competitive position of legal and sustainable timber.

More importantly, we need to know whether and how far will the impact of these regulations be on efforts to combat illegal logging, poor governance, deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics and whether there are any significant unintended consequences that may arise for the tropical timber trade and industry.

This will lead to a synthesis of lessons that can inform the development and implementation of timber legality policies, strategies and action plans by governments, private sector, civil society organizations, SMEs and local communities. 

Session 2: Updates on national forest certification scheme to support legal and sustainable supply chains

The Specialized Sub-forum 1 will also highlight the role of forest certification as the voluntary process whereby quality of forest management and production will be assessed against predetermined set of requirements to inform consumers about the sustainability of the forests from which wood and other forest products were produced. 

In Session 2, the discussion will focus on national forest certification schemes development. Several selected producer countries will be invited to update their progress in developing the national forest certification. The potential of advanced technologies to be integrated for obtaining robust schemes will also be explored to support authorities and traders in identifying the legality and sustainability of traded timber and timber products along the supply chains.

 Participants

150-200 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 of cross-sectoral collaboration and partnership.

 Contact Persons

ITTO Secretariat: Tetra Yanuariadi – tetra@itto.int; Elsie Yang – yang@itto.int; Mr. Li Qiang – li@itto.int

 Programme and Schedule

 Guests

Ms. Jennifer Conje

Director, ITTO Forest Management Division

Mr. Rupert Oliver

Director, Forest Industries Intelligence (UK)

Dr. Ivan Tomaselli

President, STCP Engenharia De Projectos LTDA / Vice President, Brazilian Association of Mechanically-Processed Timber (ABIMCI)

Mr. Ngo Sy Hoai

Vice President/Secretary General, Vietnam Timber & Forest Products Association (VIFOREST)

Ms. Ashley Amidon

Executive Director, International Wood Products Association (IWPA)

Dr. Wu Zhimin

Director of Forestry Division, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); Chair, Collaborating Partnership on Forests (CPF)

Dr. Mohammed Nurudeen Iddrisu

Officer-In-Charge, International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)

Mr. Sanjay Khumar Chauhan

Assistant Inspector General of Forests (AIGF), Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Dr. Richard Gyimah

Director of Operations at the Timber Development Division, Ghana Forestry Commission

Dr. Farah Shameen

CEO, Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC)

Ms. Basmatee Mohabeer

Coordinator of the PEFC Guyana Program and Assistant Commissioner

Dr. Preecha Ongprasert

Director of Forestry Foreign Affairs Office, Thailand Royal Forest Department

Ms. Cindy Cheng

Asia Pacific Regional Director, FSC