26 | Country Focus: France
AMBITION UNDIMMED AFTER 70 YEARS
Forum highlights tropical timber market development initiatives. Mike Jeffree reports
To mark its 70th anniversary, the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT) ran a seminar forum on its stand at the Carrefour International du Bois (CIB) exhibition (see pp23-25). ATIBT general manager Benoît Jobbé-Duval said the aim was to celebrate seven decades of achievement supporting the technical, economic and environmental development of tropical timber industries, principally but not exclusively in Francophone central and west Africa. But the forum focus was very much on current activities and future plans to develop and grow its activities.
A central focus was one of the most significant developments it’s been involved in to date – the Pan African Forest Certification (PAFC) Congo Basin initiative. Endorsed in December by PEFC International, it is the first regional scheme to come under the latter’s global certification umbrella. It brings together the national PAFC schemes of Gabon, Republic of the Congo (RoC) and Cameroon. It was several years in the making with ATIBT, led by president François Van de Ven, as development and standardising body, plus input from RoC forest economy minister Rosalie Matondo, International Tropical Timber Organisation executive director, Sheam Satkuru and Thais Linhares of the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
PEFC development officer Thomas Seyvet said the world-first project was developed with a range of aims; to drive certification efficiency, cut costs, share expertise and best practice, encourage certification uptake across the Congo Basin and facilitate marketing of its certified timber and wood products. “The regional scheme was appropriate for these three countries as they share a language, and their forest environments and management approaches are similar,” he said. “It will result in a range of synergies between their national PAFC schemes, including implementation of a common certification and audit process. It is a major achievement.”
Mr Seyvet said that PAFC Congo Basin had potential to grow, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea seen as prospective members. “It could also provide a model for
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regional PEFC schemes elsewhere around the world,” he said. The ATIBT Forum also looked at the Thémis initiative to drive European procurement of verified sustainable timber, in which it has been a development partner, together with French timber trade association Le Commerce du Bois and Belgian timber, wood furniture and textile federation Fedustria. Developed by sustainable timber and forestry analyst and adviser Probos, with IT specialist Graphius, the key elements of Thémis are its data collection tool and online portal. Development of the project benefited from Probos’ and Graphius’ experience monitoring and reporting verified responsible sourcing by members of the Netherlands Timber Trade Association (NTTA) for the last 11 years. This highlighted the impact the process can have on trading patterns. The NTTA has used the data to set baselines for targets, until today 94% of members’ total imports are third-party certified sustainable.
“By collecting this data, trade federations can monitor progress and target interventions,” said Probos director Mark van Benthem. The exercise, he added, can also have market benefits for federations and their membership. The environmental commitment and support for SFM it demonstrates helps differentiate member companies. Using Thémis, timber trade bodies ask members to log levels of verified sustainable timber procurement annually. Purchases are listed by product type and whether third-
party certified, or covered by verified legality schemes, or other forms of legality and sustainability assurance.
Federations can use the data in market analysis and to inform procurement policy. Members can benchmark their performance against federation averages or targets for verified responsible sourcing. More federations are now discussing joining the initiative. Another ATIBT Forum presentation was on the Dryades project. Led by ATIBT and Le Commerce du Bois, with Netherlands timber market development body Centrum Hout as technical partner, it is supporting development of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and French FDES environmental and health certificates for tropical timber products. Mr Jobbé- Duval said the objective is to strengthen commercial prospects of tropical timber in an international market that attaches increasing importance to environmental performance and validation.
Dryades is initially focused on Gabon, the RoC and Cameroon and companies engaged in the first phase are Pallisco, IFO-Interholco, Precious Woods and ARBOR.
Products covered in the project’s initial Life Cycle Inventory include logs, dried and undried sawn timber, hydraulic timber, sleepers, profiled products, veneers and plywood. Timber selection was by density rather than species, to encourage use of secondary varieties. ■
Above: Congo Basin forest
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