Illegal Logging can be overcome by Investing into Sustainably Managed Plantations
23/06/2011
Every year an area half the size of the UK is cleared of natural forests: temperate and tropical, North and South and on every continent. These forests, which once covered half of the planet, are irreplaceable and their loss has profound economic, social and environmental impacts. The most concerning problem today is that much of the total loss of our global forests is a consequence of illegal logging. What’s more is that the two largest timber import markets in the world, the EU and the United States, import vast quantities of illegally logged timber every year. The UK has the worst track record in Europe and it is estimated that around 62% of all tropical timber imports in the UK could potentially be from illegal sources (Forests Monitor 2001).
The scale of illegal logging is increasing year on year, however the governments of timber producing countries are finally addressing the problem and enforcing the law, tightening regulation and protecting their natural forests from an illegal trade that costs these producing countries billions of dollars each year. The World Bank estimates that illegal logging costs timber- producing countries between 10 and 15 billion Euros per year. This compares with 10 billion Euros disbursed as total EC aid in 2002.
Europe and the USA are also calling for increased scrutiny and regulation in the timber producing countries to monitor and track exports of timber and are currently underway with initiatives to sign bilateral agreements to ensure that US and EU imports are not from illegal sources. Indeed, the new UK Conservative- Liberal coalition Government has made a concrete pledge to introduce measures to make the import or possession of illegal timber a criminal offence. This is something that is also high on the EU agenda, with measures to ratify the EU’s Draft Framework on Illegal Logging ongoing in Brussels.
The general consensus as to the solution to illegal logging is for the major importing countries to only source timber from sustainable and certified sources such as commercial plantations. Timber from commercial plantations can be tagged and tracked using the latest technology and can ensure that any purchaser or importer of timber products can have total transparency of its origin. At present, commercial plantations account for less than 5% of global forest area but produce 35% of the total annual timber harvest. The United Nations predict that by 2020 plantation timber will meet around 44% of the total global demand driven by regulation and law reforms to source sustainably sourced timber.
