STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
76
Global demand for wood and wood products is a major driver
of tropical forest degradation and subsequent deforestation,
particularly in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
24
Although
deforestation in Central Africa has been slower, not least due to long
lasting conflicts, conditions are changing and a growing proportion
of the region’s forests outside of protected areas are coming under
logging concessions. According to a recent World Bank study,
a fourth of the Congo Basin’s lowland dense forest area is under
industrial logging concessions.
25
Demand for timber is projected to triple globally by 2050,
26
which
will mean even greater pressure on the rainforest. It is often argued
that plantations can help reduce the pressure on natural forests,
27
and if established beyond forest areas or on degraded lands,
this can be true. In practice, however, plantations are very often
established in rainforest areas and on recently logged or degraded
forest lands, adding to the total pressure on forests. Production
of paper and paperboard is a rapidly growing industry, with paper
products increasingly exported to expanding economies in Asia,
like China.
28
Today around 40% of all harvested wood is processed
to make paper and paperboard.
29
In some key producer countries for tropical timber, it is estimated
that illegal logging accounts for 50–90% of the production.
30
In some
countries, like Papua New Guinea, logging companies efficiently
circumvent national laws, using agricultural licenses to extract
timber, without planting crops afterwards.
As a response to the concerns over global deforestation, a number
of different certification systems have been established to promote
better forest management. However, even the most recognized
certification body, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), has been
criticized for serious breaches in their monitoring process, leading
to violations of their own standards.
31
Both the US and the EU has established systems aimed at excluding
illegally logged timber from their markets. The EU Forest Law
Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan from 2003
uses so-called Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) between
the EU and timber-exporting countries outside the EU. Under the
VPA, the timber-producing country develops systems to verify
that its timber exports are legal, and the EU agrees to accept only
licensed imports from that country.
32
In the US, the century old Lacey
Act, aimed at protecting wildlife, was amended in 2008 to include
timber and timber products, holding US importers responsible if
they import illegally logged timber. Positive as they are, it is still too
early to judge the impact of these new legal and political approaches
on logging practices and the international timber trade.
Timber, pulp and paper
