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Above: The ATIBT’s goal is to support development of tropical timber industries
The ATIBT has 170 direct members, mostly private sector businesses, but also including African and European professional bodies and institutions. Among these are the CIRAD sustainable agriculture organisation, University of Liège Gembloux research centre and NGOs including FSC and PEFC certification schemes. It also has country members; Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Republic of the Congo, where ATIBT has its African headquarters. Funding comes from members’ subscriptions and donors, including the EU, International Tropical Timber Organisation, and German development bank KfW.
Membership is now spread across 28 countries, and taking trade union and professional association members into account represents 550 companies with annual turnover of €2bn and employing 150,000. ATIBT’s focus was previously on Francophone Central and West Africa; Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but in recent years it has also formed links with Liberia, Nigeria, and Ghana.
It has been looking beyond Africa too and last year signed up its first members in Latin America.
One of these is Mil Madeiras Preciosas, which is based in Amazonas, Brazil, and is a subsidiary of Swiss-based Precious Wood Group, which was already an ATIBT member via its CEB operation in Gabon. The business says it was the first indigenous forest management company in Brazil to obtain FSC certification. Today it also holds PEFC- accredited Cerflor accreditation. The second new signatory is Maderacre,
which manages 220,000ha of forest in Madre de Dios, Peru. It has been FSC certified since 2007 and is also part of the Madre de Dios UN REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation) project, which supports generation of carbon bonds from forestry for use by other businesses to offset emissions. “Growing ATIBT membership is important to increase our representativeness and recognition in the market,” said ATIBT managing director Benoît Jobbé-Duval. “Our objective is to be an association connected to all the tropical forest regions.” ATIBT is also looking to strengthen ties in Asia. “We have very good connections with the Malaysian Timber Council and maintain regular contact with the Chinese Global Green Supply Chains initiative and the China Timber and Wood Products Distribution Association,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “We are now working on building connections with other Asian trade organisations. Our president Françoise Van de Ven travelled twice to Asia this year and renewed contact with Chinese organisations on a visit to Macao. I also attended the Global Legal and Sustainable Timber Forum in Macao with our director of strategy and innovation, Caroline Duhesme.” A central role of the ATIBT today is also to communicate to export and tropical domestic consumers about the technical performance potential of sustainable tropical timber, plus the positive social, economic, and environmental benefits of using it. This is where its Fair&Precious (F&P) promotional campaign comes in. Its consumer and specifier-facing website features articles, images and films conveying everything from the workability, unique aesthetics, and durability of tropical wood to how certified sustainable forest management provides
livelihoods, enhances social welfare, and supports forest maintenance.
“The fact that buying sustainably managed tropical wood helps to save forests is not very intuitive,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “There are other complementary strategies to develop, including conservation, but our central message is that certified sustainable timber production is also a key part of the solution to halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation.”
F&P partner companies must sign up to 10 commitments, including pledges to protect habitats, flora, and fauna and to operate ethically to ensure the welfare of workers and communities living in and around forests. Last year a new initiative was launched to raise awareness and grow support for F&P in America. US-based Nathalie Bouville was appointed consultant, tasked with encouraging US organisations and companies to become partners.
“My role centres on formulating a growth strategy tailored to the US market, targeting tropical wood importers to introduce them to the value of F&P,” she said. “The aim is to cultivate a dynamic community integrated into the ATIBT/F&P ecosystem.” She added that there is “increased pressure to green all business sectors in the US” and a growing requirement for environmental validation. “I can testify from communications with importers that sustainability will be top of their priority list into the future,” said Ms Bouville, now ATIBT head of communications. ATIBT lobbies government too and its intervention was instrumental in tropical timber being used in building developments at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Initially it was barred. ►
www.ttjonline.com | November/December 2024 | TTJ
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