By Shadrack Kavilu for Gáldu

The report released by Chatham House, finds that a decade of international effort to tackle illegal logging has yielded to a dramatic and beneficial effect on both forest dependent communities and helped in the fight against climate change.

The report assesses the response and progress in 12 countries – five producer countries (Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, Indonesia and Malaysia), two processing countries (China and Vietnam) and five consumer countries (Japan, the USA, the UK, France and the Netherlands). Together, these countries represent not only a large part of the problem but also potential solutions, as demonstrated by the report’s findings.

According to the report “Illegal logging and related trade: Indicators of the global response” the total global production of illegal timber has fallen by 22 percent since 2002.

The report attributes the decline to improved forest governance and indigenous communities’ efforts in protecting and conserving forests which play a significant role in their livelihoods.

“Up to a billion of the world’s poorest people are dependent on forests, and reductions in illegal logging are helping to protect their livelihoods”, says Sam Lawson, Chatham House Associate Fellow and lead author of the report.

Tropical forests are home to an estimated fifty million indigenous people and play an important cultural and social role in many countries. Indigenous communities depend largely on these forests for their livelihoods.

The report states that illegal logging has dropped by 50 per cent in Cameroon, by between 50 and 75 per cent in the Brazilian Amazon, and by 75 per cent in Indonesia in the last decade. This reduction, documented in three of the five tropical timber producers studied, has prevented the degradation of up to 17 million hectares of forest, an area larger than England and Wales combined.

The report notes that by preventing forest degradation, which is often the first step towards forest destruction, efforts to tackle illegal logging in these three countries may over time help prevent – at relatively low cost - the release of up to 14.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide which is the equivalent of half the carbon dioxide released by human actions worldwide each year.

It further observes that if the timber were harvested under government auspices an estimated $6.5 billion dollars could be raised in these countries alone, more than twice that which the world spends each year in overseas aid for primary school education.

According to a World Bank report, illegal logging has deprived the governments of some of the poorest countries in the world billions of dollars in lost revenue. It has also promoted corruption, undermined the rule of law and good governance and fuelled devastating armed conflicts in countries in Asia and Africa.

Authors of the report say the study covers all aspects of the timber trade, a journey that starts in the forests of five “producer” countries studied which include; Brazil, Indonesia, Cameroon, Malaysia and Ghana.

The study analyses the entry of timber into markets in the five “consumer” countries—the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, as well as through the ports and factories of two “processing” countries China and Vietnam and from there to buyers in the industrialized world.

However despite the dramatic decline, the report notes that illegal logging remains a major problem in these tropical forests. “As the more overt instances of illegal forest sector activity are addressed, less-easily detected, and therefore more intractable, illegal practices are becoming more significant,” says the report.

The report points out cases of companies with legal harvesting licenses that often log outside the permitted area. It further adds that licenses to clear forest for agricultural plantations are often issued illegally.

In 2008, companies in the United States, Japan, the UK, France and the Netherlands bought 17 million cubic meters of illegal timber and wood products worth around US$8.4 billion, most of it entering those nations in the form of processed products like plywood and furniture, mainly from China.

And in 2009, a total of 100 million cubic metres of illegal timber were harvested in the timber producing countries studied.

“If laid end to end the illegal logs would encircle the globe more than ten times over,” according to Larry MacFaul, co-author of the report.

The report notes that although the implementation of necessary regulations and policies in producer countries remains mostly poor, a number of significant improvements in laws and regulations are now underway as a result of the negotiation of Voluntary Partnership Agreements with EU.

Such agreements, the report says have already proved effective, in 2008, the US became the first country to introduce legislation to make it illegal to handle illegally harvested timber. There are early indications that the new law is already placing pressure on timber producers and processors around the world to police their supply chains.

“The effort to combat illegal logging and improve forest governance has brought developed and developing countries together in a unique way with a shared sense of purpose”, said Lawson.

“Our study shows that consumer interest and pressure combined with action by producer countries can yield very positive results,” says the author.

Japan has cut its illegal timber imports almost in half, but it remains a major destination for stolen timber. About 9 per cent of Japanese wood imports are of illegal origin, compared with 2 to 4 per cent of the other consumer countries studied.

While China is the world’s top importer and exporter of illegal wood, importing more illegal timber than all five consumer countries combined, with annual imports of 20 million cubic metres of illegal wood (in contrast to 1.5 million in Vietnam).

It costs between US$ 0.1 and US$3 per tonne to avoid damage to a forest from illegal logging, compared to the US$18 per tonne of carbon dioxide now being paid in the European Union Emissions Trading System.

The US Lacey Act which makes it illegal to handle illegally harvested timber was amended in October 2008. On 7 July this year, the EU parliament approved similar legislation.

The report notes that it is important that China and Japan follow suit and close their markets to illegal timber.

The global effort to tackle illegal logging was originally spurred by a commitment made by the G8 leaders at a meeting in the UK in 1998. On 26 June this year, G8 leaders re-iterated that commitment in a communiqué issued after their meeting in Canada calling attention to the damage caused by the illicit trade in timber and other natural resources.

The Chatham House report recommends that these efforts are built upon by those engaged in developing programmes to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD).