How do you know if wood products are sourced from sustainable tropical forests? RICK GREGORY explains how some Malaysian businesses are keeping track.

Written by Rick Gregory on 11 Jun 2007 with 0 comments. Be the first!

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?
-- Bruce Cockburn, Singer/Songwriter, If A Tree Falls, 1988

A customer in a hardware store in California stands before a stack of dense wooden doors made from tropical hardwoods harvested in Borneo. The door is stamped with a green and white label of a tree embellished with a checkmark symbol and reads:

FSC
100 %
From well-managed forests

Comfortable with her choice, she puts it in her cart, pays for it and takes it home.

The seemingly simple transaction above is not simple at all. It involves a multitude of people from the global village - forest managers, loggers, sawmillers, timber exporters and others - to ensure buyers purchase wood products derived from sustainably managed tropical forests. Consumers worldwide, especially those in Europe and North America, now use the power of economics to safeguard the globe's green lungs.

The Malaysia Forest and Trade Network (MFTN) is part of the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) that promotes the belief that responsible forest management and conscientious consumption of wood products depend on each other. By facilitating both forest product producers and end users, WWF set up the GFTN to meet the challenges of getting these groups together. MFTN operates on the premise that the forest products industry seeks to integrate environmental and social objectives with business goals.

The overriding aim is to achieve sustainable forest management. The Forest Stewardship Council or FSC is an international body that consults with governments and companies to comply with set standards of excellence. Independent parties, who verify that their forest practices and wood materials meet market requirements, then audit these forest managers and product producers. If acceptable, then products derived from well-managed forests and factories are stamped with the FSC logo.

This trademark marks a product as legal and legit. It also allows customers to immediately recognize that the company sources material from responsible suppliers. In the last decade, 50 million hectares of forests in 60 countries have been certified under the FSC programme.

The idea is not to seek certification so much as improve business practices. For consumers, the FSC initiative, started in 1993, was a huge success. Now the demand is from buyers. Savvy buyers insist that companies demonstrate that wood products are not illegal or from controversial sources. So it's now up to the suppliers to do this.

Certain responsible consumers want to purchase wood materials that do not contribute to deforestation or the loss of biodiversity. And they opt to pay a premium price for these products. That means every door, every window frame and every piece of garden furniture must be extracted from a known forest, a known sawmill and a known exporter. If the supply chain is broken, then so is the consumer's trust.

In Malaysia, illegal sources of logs arrive from nearby locales like Indonesia and even as far away as Africa. The priority for companies is to keep prohibited sources of timber out of their stockpiles. Obtaining forest products from protected areas, such as national parks, is illegal. Acquiring wood material from High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF) - areas high in biodiversity, with rare species, in endangered ecosystems, or with cultural significance - is also discouraged. And extreme caution must be taken to safeguard plant and animals species listed for protection under national laws and international agreements. Sourcing wood from dubious parties, such as "conflict timber" sold to finance militias, or countries that practice poor forest management does not build up business capital with consumers either.

Being a member of MFTN allows companies to be better positioned in global markets and be better-run businesses back home. As a network, information exchange between producers and buyers keeps each group updated on what consumers want and what suppliers can provide. For companies without certified wood products, MFTN explores alliances with mainstream importers and wholesalers to enter their goods into the market. And under the big tent of GFTN, MFTN offers links to over 400 companies worldwide that are committed to buying certified forest products.

"We firmly believe that the GFTN is the right way to go," explained Allan Paplinski of World Zone, one of the world's largest wooden outdoor furniture companies. "The step-by-step approach, which will - in theory - reward those companies who are working hard towards full certification, is the only one that can work."

As a member of MFTN, World Zone understands the dynamics of the marketplace and the value of going green. Two customers attacked by pressure groups came to World Zone in a panic, says Paplinski, and "our GFTN credentials went a long way towards convincing those groups that the customers in question were making a commitment to a more environmentally friendly stance."

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