20 Jun 2006 - Helsinki, Finland
– WWF-Russia, WWF-Finland and the Finnish Forest
Industries Federation (FFIF) have agreed on a
joint statement on legal sourcing of wood. WWF
and FFIF share a joint view on the ultimate goal
of legal and sustainable forest management, recognize
illegal loggings as a mutual concern world wide
and share a vision of international timber trade
with wood procured from legal and sustainable
sources only.
WWF acknowledges wood tracking
systems as one of the most efficient tools to
support the legal sourcing of wood. The Finnish
forest industry commits to contribute in further
development of the existing tracing systems in
local participatory processes and international
dialogue to better identify and exclude different
kind of illegalities and to increase the transparency
of the systems. WWF and FFIF have also decided
to establish a working group to further develop
wood tracking systems.
In their joint statement WWF
and FFIF also want to encourage the other actors
in timber industry, forest management and other
sectors of the society, to join the development
work and exchange lessons learned in the use of
tools that promote legal wood procurement.
• urge governments to keep illegal logging as
a focus area.
In the joint statement, FFIF and WWF commit themselves
to participate and support both public and private
efforts to combat illegal logging and timber trade.
"Illegal logging is a major
threat to sustainable use of forests world wide,
especially in countries with poor governance and
law enforcement. WWF and FFIF call on all players
world wide to further strengthen the efforts to
combat illegal logging and to promote sustainable
use of forest resources," says Timo Tanninen,
Secreatry General of WWF-Finland.
"Both governments and civil
society, including private sector, have a key
role to play in the process to combat illegal
logging and associated trade. Non-governmental
organisations and industry can contribute in combating
illegal logging by raising awareness among different
stakeholders and through stakeholder dialogue,"
says Anne Brunila, FFIF President.
Trustworthy information and
appropriate methods needed to fight illegal logging
in Russia
The joint statement has a special
emphasis on Russia because of the significant
imports of timber from Russia to Finland. Estimates
of wood with unknown origin in Russia vary from
0.6–10% to 27%. This has created confusion for
the industry and society to deal adequately with
the problem.
Since the 11000s, Finnish forest
industry companies on their own initiative have
been developing methods that aim to ensure the
legal origin of wood. Tools to combat illegal
logging include company-specific policies and
principles, creation of long-term business relations
with trustworthy suppliers, forest certification,
Environmental Management Systems, wood tracing
systems, training and increasing awareness through
stakeholder dialogue.
At the same time, WWF has been
developing a number of initiatives at international,
national and regional levels to combat illegal
logging by building awareness, analyzing its scale
and roots, and identifying key actors in combating
illegal logging. WWF has published reports on
international timber trade, promoted credible
certification, chain-of-custody certification,
tracings systems and model forests as possible
tools to eliminate illegal logging.
WWF acknowledges the work done
by the Finnish forest industry to combat illegal
logging in Russia and recognises that the tracking
systems are considered to be among the most efficient
processes currently available. However, WWF believes
that the current tracing systems are not sufficient
to exclude all kind of illegalities in the forest
sector.
Further development of tracing
systems through participatory processes and dialogue
WWF and FFIF will establish
a working group to further develop wood tracking
systems. In addition, the Finnish forest industry
commits to contribute in further development of
the existing tracing systems in local participatory
processes and international dialogue. This approach
may serve as a common basis for harmonising wood
tracing systems in global timber trade.
