With a raft of new policy and market developments coming on-stream – including the European Deforestation Regulation, a new FLEGT licence for Ghana and a forest focus for COP30 – designers should be considering tropical timber in their project designs.
The world of tropical timber has often been cast in a negative light. High-profile campaigns highlighting the dangers of illegal logging and the climate impacts of deforestation have continued to blight the image of a complex, diverse sector which in reality offers the most positive means to protect, manage and grow the tropical forest base.
We can see at a European level how, with the right regulatory framework in place, demand for more timber has also helped create demand for – and grow – the forest base itself.
We should now be applying the same principles in the tropics. Tropical timber has often been unfairly blamed for deforestation. If we look at the figures from World Resources Institute, Global Forest Review agriculture, mining and fire have been the main sources of tropical deforestation this century.
Meanwhile, the timber industry has been instrumental in developing sustainable management practices while also being subject to far greater regulation and scrutiny than other commodities.
Certification schemes
Starting in the 1990s, certification schemes such as FSC and PEFC, backed by NGOs, were pioneers in raising awareness around illegal logging and deforestation.
Seeking to counter this, they helped introduce a corporate environmental management system covering supply chains: from forest concessions to end users.
Certification schemes set strict management standards for forestry companies to meet within their defined concession areas, and against which they can be audited for compliance by a verified third party. Those concessions who meet the standards are awarded a certificate and the timber they produce can bear that certificate in a strictly audited chain of custody to give clear visibility to end users.
The impact of voluntary certification should not be underestimated: it has played a key role in defining sustainable forest management, setting standards to measure it and developing processes to trace timber across supply chains.
Regulatory processes
But the focus on sustainable management has not stopped at voluntary schemes. Perhaps even more impactful has been the work achieved in some of the regulatory processes introduced during VPA Agreements under things like the Forest Law Enforcement Governance & Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan.
This comprehensive regulatory framework offered a green lane for the trade of forest products into the EU in return for meeting a strict series of Government-led legal and governance reforms in-country.
Indonesia was the first country to be granted a FLEGT licence for introducing a transformational forest monitoring, verification and certification system – and has seen a drop in deforestation rates in the region of 60% since the system was introduced.
Ghana is next in line to be awarded FLEGT licence status for the regulatory framework introduced there. But there have been noticeable improvements in forest processes, transparency and legal compliance even in countries which have not achieved the licencing status.
The FLEGT framework also introduced legal obligations on importers to conduct strict due diligence of timber products into the EU and UK. This has meant that, since 2013, importers have been gathering evidence and paperwork to prove full compliance with the
laws of the origin country and across the full supply chain. This is policed by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and punishable by law for non-compliance.
Responsible Purchasing Policy (RPP)
At Timber Development UK, our importer members are obliged to complete a third-party audited due diligence scheme – the Responsible Purchasing Policy (RPP) – over all of their imports giving a level of assurance to end users that the full supply chain of timber products coming into the UK is being properly scrutinised.
EUDR is on the way
Coming at the end of this year, on a regulatory front, the incoming European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is looking to introduce similar due diligence measures not just for timber but for a number of other related forest risk commodities in the agriculture sector – soy, coffee, palm oil, beef, leather and cocoa.
Taken together, this combination of voluntaryand regulatory measures has improved the landscape for tropical timber production and should be rewarded through improved trade and end use.
The Broader Market Recognition Coalition
Trade is vital to encouraging more reform and improvements across the tropical forest sector. At TDUK we are proud to be supporting a new initiative, the Broader Market Recognition Coalition – BMRC – to help promote regulatory reform within countries and the use of more tropical timber.
The picture is still far from perfect. But, by improving the demand for legal and sustainable timber – and providing value for the products and forest management processes which go into it – trade can incentivize even further improvements and sustainable reforms at source. And disincentivize the need for destructive and illegal forest clearance.
What to look for when specifying tropical timber?
Designers should always ask for information on the source and provenance of their timber products.
Talk to your TDUK supplier and ask for valid copy of their RPP Certificate.
Specify PEFC, FSC or FLEGT certified timber where possible
Check the properties of different species via our Species Database.
Learn more about certification, forest management and sustainability via the TDUK Knowledge Library
