Abstract
Raised public concern in the European Union (EU) about the legality of its timber imports has pushed the European Commission to raise its standards and legality demands for wood imports. Combining literature reviews, structured interviews and trade data analyses, this study assesses the potential influence from Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) (with its Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) system and new legislation EU Timber Regulation (EUTR)), and third party verification schemes on the timber trade between tropical countries and Europe. These instruments have the potential to reduce the amount of illegally sourced timber being placed on the market, and they seem to have resulted in both increasing support of legality verification and certification uptake. However, there are signs of increased ambiguity in trade that could originate as a side effect of the transition towards a stricter regulation for tropical timber. Such ambiguity is explicitly taken into account here. Possible consequences from increased ambiguity are substitution of oak lumber for tropical hardwood lumber, and a diversion of exports of tropical timber to destinations with a less stringent regulatory framework than the EU. Evidence of these trade patterns in the literature reviews, interviews, and trade data analyses seems to confirm that ambiguity in international trade markets has actually increased since the introduction of these instruments.
Highlights
Starting from a theoretical setting characterized by ambiguity, we provide assessments of how the trade in tropical timber between Europe and tropical countries has been impacted by the abovementioned policy instruments
Ambiguity in the International Timber-Trade. International initiatives such as Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and FSC seem to have resulted in both increasing support of legality verification and certification uptake in South-east Asian nations [33], driven by market pressure and the need for compliance with good forest governance and European Union (EU) standards [10]
Studies suggest that the amount of illegally sourced timber being placed on the European market has been decreasing [34], and by 2009 the rate of illegal logging in Indonesia was estimated to have halved to about 40% [35]
Summary
Different non-governmental organizations (NGOs), conservation groups, international organizations, industries and governments have focused on promoting policies and incentives to address this issue [2]. These policy measures and incentives range from market-based incentives (certification) to regulatory/enforcement measures (Forest Law Enforcement and Governance) and measures that include both market and enforcement mechanisms (Forest Law. Enforcement, Governance and Trade) [4]. In the forestry sector, a number of market-based instruments such as third-party verification schemes (which include certification) provide a way of defining sustainable forest management as well as offering a third party, independent verification that a timber source meets the definition of sustainability [5,6]. There are a number of international and national third party certification schemes, two of the most internationally recognized forest certification schemes being: the Forest Stewardship
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