32 | Sector Focus: Tropical Timber
◄ On-product BMRC labelling won’t just be the preserve of member countries with endorsed NSFS, but also those en-route to endorsement. The proviso is that they use graduated claims alongside the logo, such as “progressing to sustainability”.
The message behind the label will be that products delivered by BMRC NSFSs “are sustainable (or progressing to sustainable), contribute to achievement of socio-economic goals, and provide for wider environmental benefits, such as biodiversity conservation”. “By connecting demand with supply from NSFSs, and by providing for phased market recognition of NSFSs depending on progress, the BMRC mechanism will also help to support and incentivise members’ responsible national agencies to implement effective forest governance, enforcement, and other regulatory and non-regulatory measures to
deliver legal and sustainable forestry,” says the Roadmap. BMRC marketing will engage key decision
makers, such as architects, designers, civil engineers and other specifiers and will lobby for harmonised import regulations to combat trade in illegal and unsustainable forest products. It will also support research into life cycle impacts of products delivered under BMRC-endorsed forest systems. This will “provide for credible scientifically supported messaging on their low carbon footprint and other environmental benefits”.
The view is that the importance attached to independently endorsed sustainable forestry systems will grow globally as more consumer markets follow in the footsteps of those such as the US, EU, Japan and Australia and implement timber and forest product import controls to ensure legal and sustainable
sourcing. And that is set to include the biggest tropical timber market of all, China. At the same time, sustainability is becoming an increasingly central plank of public and private sector procurement policy. “By demonstrating conformance of robust NSFSs with clearly stated principles, BMRC will provide a harmonised framework for recognition of legal and sustainable forest products from participant tropical countries in the import regulations and procurement policies of trade partners,” says the BMRC Roadmap.
Such systems, it adds can also ensure and assure sustainable supply of non-timber forest products, from foodstuffs, to medicinal plans, resins and fibres. These support the livelihoods of two billion people worldwide. Another BMRC objective is to make the forest product industries of member countries more investible. As sustainability moves up the agenda of government, business and consumers, financial institutions and the wider investment community internationally are increasingly putting money into environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliant finance instruments. The Global Sustainable Investment Alliance estimated in 2020 that the value of sustainable investment in major financial markets globally was over US$35trn. Since then, it’s clearly grown. Research by PwC found that three-quarters of large investors, including pension funds and insurance companies, intended to stop buying conventional funds in favour of ESG alternatives by 2022.
The BMRC says it will help member countries tap into this growing investment pot by “giving confidence to national and international creditors and investors that BMRC-endorsed NSFS are robust and implemented in accordance with internationally recognised principles”. It will also promote BMRC-endorsed NSFSs “as a factor to improve the credit rating of forest sector enterprises in participant tropical countries”.
The Roadmap says that BMRC will initially need overseas development aid seed funding from donor governments. Longer term it will look to secure domestic public funding from member countries, given that endorsed and effectively enforced NSFSs should increase their tax take. It will also explore charging licence fees for use of the BMRC label along the supply chain and “innovative mechanisms to raise finance for NSFSs in participant countries and support BMRC activities at international level”. These could include blended finance initiatives, where “public and private funders pool capital to reduce risk for private investors, while enabling deployment of large projects or provision of credit to large numbers of smallholders”. ■
Top: A sawmill in the Republic of the Congo PHOTO: CIFOR Above: Indonesia is interim host of the BMRC
TTJ | November/December 2023 |
www.ttjonline.com The BMRC’s website will launch shortly.
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