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Above: Cameroon remains a leading UK supplier
The BMRC has six founder members, Indonesia, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, the Republic of the Congo and Guyana. Its roots can be traced to the Tropical Timber Accord, signed by these and other countries and presented to COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021. This contended that the EU and UK’s Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programme, which is about incentivising sustainable and legal forest management by delivering market access, has had positive results. Under FLEGT, supplier tropical countries enter Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with the EU and the UK, undertaking to establish national timber legality assurance systems. Once these systems are approved by the EU, the UK and the producer country government, the latter can issue FLEGT licences, which exempt goods from further import legality due diligence in EU and UK markets. While so far only Indonesia has achieved licensing status – although with Ghana set to follow suit in 2024 (see p40) – it’s acknowledged that other partner countries have progressed their timber legality assurance and tracking systems. FLEGT is also accepted as pushing environmental performance up the agenda in both tropical timber consumer and producer countries. However, the Tropical Timber Accord maintained, FLEGT’s impact and appeal is limited by the fact that it’s only about access to EU and UK markets, whose share of the global tropical timber trade has been in historical decline. What was needed, said the Accord, was something new “to incentivise good forest governance in tropical countries
through broader market recognition of national systems”. This, concluded subsequent discussions, should be an “initiative that defines and recognises a system of rules- based legality and sustainability for tropical countries which supports governance and strong global collaboration”. The BMRC is designed to be that initiative. The Coalition’s Roadmap, agreed this
summer, has been developed through wide stakeholder engagement. It’s involved input from member countries’ governments, the private sector and civil society.
It explains that members commit to their NSFS being assessed and validated against international sustainable forest policy criteria and indicators. They must be developed and backed by all stakeholder groups and comply with laws that address environmental, social and economic principles, ensure nationwide enforcement and also involve independent third party compliance monitoring. If the BMRC’s lead body, its Council, is initially unable to endorse an NSFS, an action plan will be drawn up for corrective action. Countries will be supported in getting to endorsement level through best practice exchange with other members and donor backing, leveraged by the BMRC. The Roadmap does not bill the BMRC as a replacement for third party sustainability certification, as provided by FSC and PEFC, but it does say national sustainability forestry systems have advantages. They encompass the entire national landscape, whereas third- party certification covers individual forest management units, which can be “small islands of responsible production in a sea of
illegal and destructive practice”. Moreover, third-party certification is voluntary, whereas national systems are embedded in law. “Where significant reductions in deforestation and increased afforestation have occurred in the past, it has always been in the context of national policies designed to promote socio-economic development on the one hand, and sustainable use of the land resources on the other,” states the Roadmap. In terms of governance and structure of the BMRC, the Council, including representatives of each members’ government, private sector and civil society, will be the executive. It will decide on admission of new members and endorsement of NSFSs and lead on market promotion of BMRC countries’ NSFS and forest products. A small secretariat will undertake day-to-day management, with responsibilities including BMRC communications, trademarks and logo use. An independent endorsement criteria review body will make recommendations to the Council on criteria and indicators for endorsement of NSFSs, while independent assessment and broader market recognition panels will respectively assess NSFSs against endorsement criteria and advise on the Systems achieving political and market recognition. Each member country also has a national committee.
A BMRC chain of custody standard will build on those of existing certification schemes, such as the FSC, PEFC and SVLK. It will also align with the ISO38200 standard for wood and wood product chain of custody. The idea is that companies accredited to these can easily adapt to the BMRC’s standard. ►
www.ttjonline.com | November/December 2023 | TTJ
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