The EU imports roughly 20 million cubic metres of illegal timber annually from the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin, East Africa, Indonesia, the Baltic States and Russia, a new WWF report shows. As a result, the EU is responsible for around €3 billion of the global €10–15 billion in lost revenue due to illegal logging each year. Indonesia accounts for the highest value (an estimated €0.9 billion), while Russia and the Baltic states supply the greatest volume (around 13 million cubic metres).
According to the report, which focuses on the trade between EU countries and the six key timber-producing regions, the United Kingdom is the biggest importer of illegal timber in Europe (and the third biggest importer of illegal timber and pulp and paper combined, after Finland and Sweden respectively). Together, the three countries account for a roundwood equivalent volume of some nine million cubic metres – roughly 40 per cent of the EU’s total illegal production and imports.
In terms of the EU’s potential to use trade to limit rates of illegal logging, the report’s findings can be summarised as follows:
• The EU imports around 45 per cent of all timber exported from the Amazon Basin. Brazil is by far Latin America’s biggest supplier to the EU, However, Brazil’s exports account for only around 20 per cent of domestic tropical timber production – most of that timber remains in Brazil. This limits the EU’s potential to use trade to reduce illegal production in this region. France, the Netherlands and the UK account for the largest share of the region’s exports to the EU. In this case then, an emphasis on providing markets and technical support to improve supply chain management would probably prove to be more effective than trade-related instruments.
• The EU is probably importing a substantial and increasing quantity of illegal timber from all regions (except the Baltic states) indirectly via China.
• In the Baltic states, Latvia (which supplies half this region’s timber exports) and Estonia have the most to gain from a reduced trade in illegal timber. Sweden and the UK are the leading destinations for the region’s timber exports. In this case the EU needs to make sure that illegal trade within its own borders is eliminated if it is to engage credibly with other producer countries.
• Timber is one of the Congo Basin’s principal export commodities. In contrast to the Amazon Basin, most of the Congo Basin’s production (around 80 per cent) is exported. The EU and China are the leading destinations for these exports. Unfortunately, the EU’s potential to use its market strength to reduce the production and sale of illegal timber is jeopardised not only by China’s increasingly strong influence in the Congo Basin, but also the scale and nature of its illegal timber imports from the region.
• Cameroon and Gabon supply 80 per cent of the region’s timber exports to the EU. Congo-Brazzaville supplies a further 10 per cent. Italy, France and, to a lesser extent, other southern EU countries, are the leading EU importers of timber from the Congo Basin – which, given the lack of real progress concerning public procurement policy in those EU countries, makes EU policy concerning the prohibition of illegal timber from the region all the more important.
• While the volume of east Africa’s direct exports to the EU is relatively small compared with other regions, they can include high-value species whose habitat is particularly threatened.
• The EU accounts for more than 10 per cent of Indonesia’s tropical timber exports and rather less of its tropical timber production. Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK together account for the largest share of these EU imports. The estimated value of the EU’s imports of illegal timber from Indonesia is probably sufficient to enable the EU to exert significant leverage. However, EU efforts to eliminate this
trade will also require the cooperation of China, Japan and Malaysia, all of which import significant quantities of wood-based products from Indonesia.
• Finally, the EU imports the majority of timber exported from north-west Russia, accounting for between half and two thirds of this part of Russia’s production in 2004. While Finland imports most of this (especially as pulpwood), Estonia, Germany, Sweden and the UK also play a significant role. Finland and Sweden probably also import wood-based products from Russia indirectly via Estonia (a substantial proportion of whose exports are likely to derive from Estonia’s own imports from Russia). Meanwhile China is again a major market, but from Siberia and the Russian Far East, where it imports almost as much as the EU.
WWF believes current EU efforts, including the Forests Law Enforcement Governance & Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, which promotes voluntary agreements between member states importing timber and external countries producing it, fall far short of the measures needed to tackle illegal logging. While the aim of the regulation is to prevent illegal timber being imported into the EU, it is neither mandatory, nor does it prevent illegal timber being imported via third countries, the global conservation organization says.
As Ministers meet to discuss measures to consider illegal logging at a meeting in Brussels today, WWF is calling for new EU-wide legislation to prohibit the import of illegally logged timber. WWF also urges the EU to take far more active steps to encourage other major producers such as China, Japan and the US to eliminate illegal timber from their own imports.
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