The responsible practices of our industry are being obscured, big time, by the massive scale of illegal logging in developing countries. Our industry can help to nail the

by David Price

Imagine for a moment that the American Forest & Paper Association and the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington have organized a meeting in Georgetown to discuss illegal logging. The featured speaker is Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice. Most of the AF&PA's members are there, so are academics, researchers, government officials, and the international press.

But it didn't happen, not in the USA anyway. Yet in Europe, something very similar has been going on for the last six years.

Every country in Europe—except Russia—is taking part in the EU's Forest Law, Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) partnership, which began in 2000. Meetings and research are led and coordinated by Europe's leading “think tank,” the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA) in London. The heavy political stuff is done by the UK's equivalent of the US's Secretary Rice. This writer occasionally chairs workshops in this partnership.

The Problem
Too much valuable timber is being harvested illegally and its finished products are ending up in European living rooms. It's an emotive topic and a dangerous one. At its simplest level it goes something like this: old growth timber is harvested illegally in an Asian or African forest; shipped to China, Malaysia or Mexico; converted into furniture; then exported to Europe or North America. At that stage, the timber's provenance is impossible to trace.

It's emotive because the NGOs, in their crusade against illegal trade, have a habit of pitching at our industry because it “does timber.” I also have a habit of challenging the wilder accusations of the eco-fascists. We have fought each other to a draw at the moment.

But it's also dangerous because much of the timber is “conflict timber.” Irregular armed groups in West and Central Africa and in South East Asia cut down forests and sell the timber to fund their violence. Vicious tribal conflicts in Central Africa are sustained by hatred and illegal timber sales.

It is also a business practice. In parts of Indonesia, the Pacific islands and the Russian Far East, native business groups and families, and sometimes, local politicians, issue dodgy permits and licenses, then cut down forests that have a critical ecological status in the region. Environmental degradation then follows. Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), an Indonesian-Chinese pulp manufacturer, operating in China, is under investigation by the Chinese authorities for this kind of behavior. This doesn't help our industry's image.

What is Being Done?
Meetings, and lots of them. And these come along with obvious frustrations. Considering the number of parties involved means that proposals, endless drafts of working papers, bureaucracy, complexity, and national sensitivity all combine to prolong decision-making.

But there is progress. Information now flows steadily into the EU, guilty parties have been identified, third parties traced, legislation drafted, penalties prepared, and definitions agreed. Criminal law has been used to trace money laundering of illegal logging cash, goods have been confiscated and traders and importers penalized.

But all of this happens only in the EU. It has been very difficult to apply any punitive sanctions in the supplier countries.

More Problems
The biggest players in this business, Russia and China, have not signed up to FLEGT. Russia says it has a national policy on natural resources, i.e. oil, gas and coal. But its forests are a matter for provincial governors. China says yes to all the proposals, and then doesn't show up.

And in Europe, the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) states that illegal logging and its consequences should be policed in the country of origin. Ironically, CEPI and its members claim to be global players, but apparently not on this issue. Yet CEPI has signed up to the chain of custody discipline. In CEPI's language: “FLEGT fails to address the underlying causes of the problem, while increasing the bureaucratic burden for the industry.” The first part of that statement is wrong and the second is right.

What's to be done?
So who can help? Once again it has to be the USA and the AF&PA. The situation may even call for Secretary Rice to have a quiet word with her counterparts in the offending countries.

The AF&PA's position on illegal logging is prominent and determined. But it needs to do more, if possible, by getting US importers of forest products to ask tough questions of their suppliers. In this way, the competitiveness of the forest-based industries will be enhanced and the image of the entire sector improved.

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