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New tropical timber pact takes aims at illegal logging Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com February 1, 2006 Late last week, countries that export and export tropical timber reached a 10-year agreement to help promote the sustainable development of forests while fighting illegal logging. The pact calls on signatories to support and develop tropical timber reforestation projects and share information on forestry management, while promoting the expansion and diversification of international trade in tropical timber from sustainably managed and legally harvested forests. The agreement, which was signed by 33 producing and 26 consuming countries, also aims to improve forest law enforcement and governance, specifically addressing illegal logging which is quite prevalent and extremely costly for developing countries. The World Bank estimates that governments lose about US$5 billion in revenues annually as a result of illegal logging while overall losses to the national economies of timber-producing countries add up to an additional US$10 billion per year. The illegal timber trade diminishes the value of tropical timber by undercutting world prices and depletes the natural resource base, costing tropical countries in the long-term by reducing revenue-generating potential of forests. Timber is now a decreasingly important industry in many former wood-exporting countries in Southeast Asia and West Africa due to poor forest management and illegal logging. Some of these states—including Cambodia, Nigeria, and Vietnam—today have the world's highest rates. Over the past five years, total tropical deforestation rates have increased 8.5 percent when compared with the average annual loss during the 1990s. Annual loss of primary forests—the most biodiverse form of forest—expanded by almost 24 percent over the same period. Overall, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that 10.40 million hectares of tropical forest were permanently destroyed each year in the period from 2000 to 2005, an area the size of Lebanon.
"People want neither poverty nor environmental degradation," said Dr Sobral. "ITTO believes that natural tropical forests can be both conserved for future generations and put to economic use to alleviate poverty and contribute to national development. This new agreement articulates this belief and gives material support for it through innovative funding mechanisms." Dr Sobral added that many people think the conservation of tropical forests and the development of the tropical timber trade are mutually exclusive. "On the contrary, the one is essential for the other," he said. "Without conservation there can be no long-term trade. Without trade, the forests will be cleared for agriculture because, one way or another, the people living in tropical countries will continue to demand economic development." The new agreement's involvement of both producing and consuming nations is important to developing a sound policy for managing the tropical timber trade, though trade actions alone cannot ensure the sustainable management of forests. Work must be done in tropical countries to ensure that sustainable development is truly sustainable in the long run. Related articles Research released earlier this month in Science found that Brazil's Amazon rain forest is being degraded twice as fast as deforestation figures suggest. Selective logging, where only one or two valuable tree species are harvested from an area, is driving the forest degradation. The findings have important implications for "sustainable harvesting" schemes that have been promoted as ecologically-sound alternatives to traditional harvesting techniques. Tropical deforestation rates continue to climb Tropical deforestation rates continue to climb according to figures released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Analysis of FAO data by mongabay.com shows that tropical deforestation rates increased 8.5 percent from 2000-2005 when compared with the 1990s, while loss of primary forests expanded by almost 24 percent over the same period. Nigeria has worst deforestation rate, FAO revises figures Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate of primary forests according to revised deforestation figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Between 2000 and 2005 the country lost 55.7 percent of its primary forests -- defined as forests with no visible signs of past or present human activities. Logging, subsistence agriculture, and the collection of fuelwood are cited as leading causes of forest clearing in the West African country. Illegal loggers make a fortune, American forestry companies attempt to fight back A new report published by Seneca Creek Associates and Wood Resources Institute, says that illegal logging hurts legitimate timber operators by driving down market prices for wood and tarnishing the industry's reputation through shady dealings with corrupt regimes. While maximizing their harvest without regard for regulations or the long-term impact of their activities, these illicit operators reduce their costs through the use of well-placed bribes to avoid taxes and royalties. Britain is largest importer of illegal timber in EU says WWF Britain is the biggest importer of illegally-logged timber in Europe, responsible for the destruction of 1.4 million acres of forest a year according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF). The report, based on estimates of illegal logging by official bodies such as the World Bank, focused on trade between EU countries and the Amazon basin, the Congo basin, East Africa, Indonesia, the Baltic states and Russia. WWF found that Britain was responsible for £2 billion-worth ($3.4 billion) of illegally harvested timber imports. Scent-tagging wood could cut illegal timber smuggling In the future illegally harvested timber could be tracked by their scent according to researchers at Oregon State University. The wood-sniffing device would allow the timber industry to certify that individual products come from sustainably harvested operations and cut down on illegal logging. Such a device could prove cost-effective for the timber industry and governments of timber-exporting countries. According to World Bank estimates, governments lose about US$5 billion in revenues annually as a result of illegal logging while overall losses to the national economies of timber producing countries add up to an additional US$10 billion per year.
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