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The creation of an international, pan-industry coalition to enhance forests’ multiple values and drive forest and timber sector legality and sustainability was agreed at the recent forum, Together Towards Global Green Supply Chains. Another outcome of the Shanghai meeting was a cooperative agreement between organisations representing Asian and European businesses active in the Gabon forest sector.

The forum drew a 350-strong audience from around the world, including major operations in the tropical timber products industry and trade. It was co-organised by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), China Timber and Wood Products Distribution Association (CTWPDA), the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT), and China’s Center for International Forest Products Trade/National Forestry and Grassland Administration (CINFT/NFGA).

Speakers said the world is facing unparalleled environmental risks and challenges. Forests were both threatened by climate change and wider environmental degradation, and at the same time held potential solutions for both. They needed protection and the forestry and timber sectors could be key to delivering it.

“Forests, especially tropical forests, contain extraordinary biodiversity, are crucial for  climate-change mitigation, and have huge cultural importance,” said John Leigh, Chair of the ITTO. “Yet the land they occupy is also valuable for farming,  mining and urban development. To minimize the risk of losing forests, it’s imperative they generate economic benefits for development, income, jobs, and livelihoods. This is why we need green supply chains to ensure stable supplies of legal, sustainable timber from sustainably managed forests.”

The new coalition, the Global Green Supply Chains Network, is open to forest companies and other timber sector stakeholders in producer and consumer countries. It pledges to ‘promote sustainable development of forest industries and contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of global forest resources’.

The network is open to others along the supply chain to join, through to consumers. It will promote exchange and business and technical  cooperation across forestry and timber sectors. The Shanghai Forum organisers also committed to back it, with ITTO bringing the support of its Legal and Sustainable Supply Chains Programme.

“The development of global green supply chains will enhance the production, processing, distribution and consumption of legal and sustainable timber and forest products, including tropical timber,” said ATIBT president Robert Hunink. “It will bring benefits to all stakeholders and help solve some of the world’s most urgent problems.”

“The industry faces many challenges in global adoption of green wood supply chains,” said Zhu Guangquan, Chief Expert of CTWPDA. “It requires a spirit of partnership throughout the industry.”

Next steps in development of the network will be sharing experiences of the existing Global Green Supply Chain (GGSC) platform in China and creation of an open access  information database incorporating the Global Timber Tracking Network (GTTN). Participants will also support inter-business communication and exchange, with monthly publication of GGSC Network updates and timber and wood products market data. In addition, an entrepreneurs and private-sector expert team will be formed to feed in its views.

“From ITTO’s perspective, the significance of the new Network will be determined by how successfully it is managed, while it is aimed to attract stakeholders who are committed to being part of legal and sustainable supply chains (LSSC),” said ITTO Director Operations Sheam Satkuru. “The participation and support from a select group of the Chinese forestry and wood products sector can be seen as catalytic towards establishing legal and sustainable supply chains and the network is foreseen to expand to several regions globally.”

Also in Shanghai, the Union of Forest Industries and Managers  of Gabon (UFIGA) and the Union of Asian Forest Industries of Gabon (UFIAG) agreed to extend their cooperation in support of the GGSC Initiative. All Gabonese forest industries committed to work towards independent third party certification of legality and/or sustainability over the next three years. “This is crucial to achieve a much needed level playing field, and at the same time to improve the image of our industry,” said Mr Hunink. “ATIBT will try to convince governments and federations in other Congo Basin countries to follow suit.”

“ATIBT and the CTWPDA also signed an agreement in Huzhou, China, [venue for the CTWPDA wood flooring and hardwood conference, following the Shanghai meeting] to intensify exchanges on sustainable management and responsible supply chains,” said ATIBT Managing Director Benoît Jobbé-Duval, adding that his organisation will also work closely with the GGSC Secretariat in China.

Gabon is set to receive $150 million over ten years for cutting emissions from forest degradation and deforestation and for the CO2 sequestration of its natural forests. The deal, under the UN REDD+ programme, was brokered with the country by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) on behalf of funder Norway. It was announced by Gabonese Forests Minister Lee White at the Climate Action Summit at the UN in September.

The initiative, which will be subject to third party verification, sets a carbon floor price of $10 per certified ton to incentivize forest maintenance and emissions reduction. Payments will also be retrospective, covering Gabon’s achievement in this area going back to 2016.

“We have to raise the value of Gabonese rainforests to ensure conservation and sustainable exploitation can be used as tools to improve living standards by creating jobs and livelihoods, whilst also sustaining natural capital,” said Mr White. “Norway’s agreement to double the price of a ton of rainforest carbon dioxide is highly significant and gives us hope that the international community will move towards a realistic price that will provide a real incentive for rainforest countries to follow our example.”

Norway  Minister of Climate and Environment Ola Elvestuen described the project as ‘historic’. “It properly takes into account Gabon’s special status as a country with high forest cover and low deforestation,” he said. “It is 88% covered with forests, and I hope our partnership can help them reach their goal to maintain 98% of that for the future.”

According to CAFI, Central African forests and peatlands store up to 70 billion tons of carbon, equivalent to 5-10 years’ global greenhouse gas emissions. Emmanuel Groutel expert in strategy and international markets at WALE welcomed the Gabonese initiative and said it could be a model for fellow supplier states. “The whole world must support Gabon because what it is proposed is an example of virtuous development that preserves the environment and shows the way forward for other countries in the region,” he said.

ATIBT President Robert Hunink applauded the Gabon initiative. “I hope that other Congo Basin countries consider following this example. It would truly be a great contribution towards climate change mitigation,” he said. “However, in other to convince governments that forest conservation could be an alternative income model to conventional harvesting, carbon prices need to reflect this. And last but not least, socio-economic development should not be negatively impacted by these agreements.”

In 2018, Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba stated that all forest concessions in the country must be certified by 2022.

A documentary featuring STTC and Fair & Precious partner Interholco, which highlights how sustainable forest management in the Republic of Congo can incentivise forest and habitat conservation has won Germany’s prestigious Nature Film Prize.

In ‘Paradise Preserved: Congo – Protecting the Gorilla Forests’ , which was produced by Thomas Weidenbach for tv channel ARTE, film-makers followed the work of forest and industry teams from Interholco subsidiary IFO in the Republic of Congo over several weeks.

The company manages an FSC concession of 1.16 million ha in the country and the film showed how its approach to sustainable management, including working with conservation organisations, helps preserve habitats, in this case home to several thousand western lowland gorillas.

“The jury came to its decision based on the film’s positive vision of how it’s possible to secure nature in the tropical forest, while at the same time providing local people with long-term, economic prospects,” said Interholco managing director Ulrich Grauert. “’Made in Africa’ sustainable hardwood offers a multitude of solutions to help tackle climate change, while supporting social justice in developing countries and protecting habitats. We hope this film will be shown in schools all over Europe. It explains in a comprehensible way how sustainable forestry works in Africa.”

In its report on the award, newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said the documentary demonstrates ‘how it is possible to give nature a value that ultimately contributes to its protection’.

“This is a previously neglected perspective, which gives hope in nature conservation and social terms,” it said.

Streaming service Curiosity Stream (www.curiositystream.com) shows the film with the strapline: ‘Something exceptional is happening in the north of the Republic of the Congo. Here loggers are not destroying the environment, but helping preserve the tropical forests’.

The German Nature Film Foundation has been awarding its annual prize since 2008. The aim is to support the work of film makers, but also help conservation by ‘bringing endangered species and natural spaces’ into people’s living rooms’.

The award was presented by German culture minister Bettina Martin.

You can watch the film here: https://curiositystream.com/video/3159.