Fair&Precious Partners in the spotlight

In the latest of our interviews with Fair&Precious partners, we ask Paolo Bracciano, Managing Director of Regalis, about its business, its outlook and ethos.

How would you describe your business; who you are, what you do and what you stand for?
Regalis is a trading company, specialised in international wood products supply. We source quality hardwoods and softwoods from West and Central Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and USA. With long experience, we offer verified legal and sustainable wood products to importers and manufacturers worldwide. We engage in constant, regular purchasing programs with our suppliers, to ensure our wood offer is both extensive and available. We support suppliers and often participate in investments with them to further improve and develop their factories’ transformation capacity, to help further develop the local economy and reduce the carbon footprint related to product transport.

Why did you become a Fair&Precious partner?
It gives us the opportunity to help develop market knowledge, especially in those countries not yet familiar with it, of the value of verified legal and sustainable tropical timber.

What do you see as the challenges for tropical timber to retain European market share?
I see more opportunities than challenges. Timber harvested responsibly from well managed forests is the building material of the future.

How important is the European market to the tropical timber industry?
Europe remains the main reference market for tropical timber, especially in terms of wood working practices. It still has a very important role in the development and spread of tropical timber knowledge and of new applications.

In which market or end-product sectors do you see greatest opportunities for sustainable tropical timber?
Regalis has been a pioneer in developing tropical timbers in several markets that were not accustomed to using them. This has taken considerable effort in terms of promotion and training, but has been a success. We see several other potential markets and applications where tropical timber can grow, but only by investing in marketing. In particular, we see potential in areas related to the ‘green building’, both in structural and decorative applications.

Do you see potential for growing market uptake of secondary sustainable tropical timber species?
Regalis has promoted development of lesser known species for some time. It’s not easy, especially in Europe, where the market is strongly attached to its ‘traditional species’. New markets are more open to trying secondary species. But their use will probably increase in the coming years due to the shortage of more commonly used species. They need to be supported with research and application projects to determine their technical, aesthetic and durability characteristics.

What would be your sales pitch for sustainable tropical timber or timber products to a customer?
Thanks to the biodiversity of the tropical forest, you have a wide spectrum of species, all with different technical, durability and appearance characteristics, and they can often be used in their natural state, without the need of preservative treatment chemicals.

Are you optimistic for the future of the sustainable tropical timber sector?
We’re really optimistic about the future. We expect further development of woodworking industries in producer countries, leading to a reduction in the carbon footprint of our trade. And we’re confident the introduction of new forest laws will support sustainable forest management system in the majority of the forests, in turn allowing us to further enhance our tropical timber offer.

 

Science supports sustainable timber supply

World Forest ID’s aim is to enable the use of science-based species identification and traceability techniques to police trade in the top 200 most commercial and vulnerable timber species. This, it maintains, would deliver a significant blow against illegal logging globally and underpin maintenance of the forest resource, its biodiversity and critical role in climate regulation.

To achieve its goal, World Forest ID (WFID) has set out to create a collection of geo-referenced samples of key timber species from around the world. At the same time, partner laboratories are using such techniques as Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) and DART (Direct Analysis in Real Time) mass spectrometry to record the samples’ chemical and structural profiles, each of which is unique to both species and location.

“The main obstacle to using science-based traceability to date has been that existing wood sample collections around the world are not geo-referenced. So, they cannot be used with these techniques to prove timber origin, which is key in prosecuting illegal timber traffickers,” said WFID chief executive Phil Guillery.

Consequently, he explained, a consortium came together to form World Forest ID and address this shortcoming. It comprised the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the US Forest Service International Programs Office (USFSIP), WFID’s main funder to date. Also involved are UK-based SIRA experts, Agroisolab and Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London, designated curator of the wood sample collection.

Samples from all over the world
Now a not-for-profit entity in its own right, the range of WFID’s sample collection program is already extensive. Shown on a map on its website, it ranges across 21 countries, from West Africa, Asia (including China) and the Pacific, to north, central and south America, Europe and Russia.

Collectors gather samples of sapwood, heartwood, cambium, bark and leaves from a number of trees of a specific species in a particular area. Using the WFID app, the trees’ location is then registered via GPS to an accuracy of 8-16m.

While some analysis will be done in the samples’ country of origin, most to date has been undertaken by Agroisolab and the USFSIP’s Wood Identification and Screening Centre. Besides SIRA and DART mass spectrometry, methods used include digital imaging and DNA analysis. The project is also focused on traceability of other forest-risk commodities, such as soy, coffee and biofuels.

Free data for cross reference
The end result of the analysis program is a bank of irrefutable scientific data, effectively chemical and structural fingerprints, identifying the wood samples’ species and provenance. Held in a database at the University of Connecticut, this can be freely accessed by ISO-registered public and private test laboratories to cross reference with traded timber so they can prove it’s what it’s claimed to be and confirm it comes from legal, sustainable sources.

“We’ve created the infrastructure and partnerships necessary to build the only open-source geo-referenced wood and agriculture collection in the world,” said Mr. Guillery. “This will enable us to overcome barriers to increasing mainstream use of scientific analysis techniques to rein in the lucrative and destructive trade in illegal forest products.”

He stressed that WFID’s sample collection and database can also be used to identify ‘good wood as well as bad’. Thus it can be employed by the legitimate trade to assure customers its timber is legal and sustainable and its supply chains are deforestation-free.

In its latest project, WFID is working with the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and other partners. Currently in pilot phase, focused on sample collection and analysis of white oak and tulipwood in Kentucky, the ultimate aim is a species identity and traceability database covering the entire US hardwood forest. This, maintains, WFID could become a model for equivalent nationwide schemes globally.

Thanks to AHEC for its help in writing this article.

First phase of tropical timber EPD project complete

The initial Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data collection phase of the international Dryades project to develop Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Health Declaration Sheets (FDESs) for tropical timber is now complete.

Dryades was launched last year and is a joint initiative of the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT), its member companies and French timber trade association Le Commerce du Bois (LCB). Funded by the PPECF-COMIFAC central Africa forest certification programme, plus ATIBT members and LCB, the objective is to strengthen commercial prospects of verified sustainable tropical timber in an international market which attaches increasing importance to environmental performance and validation.

LCA based products’ environmental claims
ATIBT Managing Director Benoît Jobbé-Duval said Dryades was also prompted by increasing governmental demands for proof of construction products’ environmental impacts. “In the case of France, for example, when building product marketing includes environmental performance claims, manufacturers are required to provide an EPD, which gives the product’s complete environmental profile, principally based on life cycle analysis (LCA),” said Mr Jobbé-Duval.

The Dryades project is initially focused on Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon and the companies engaged in the first phase are Pallisco, IFO-Interholco, Precious Woods and ARBOR. Products covered in the LCI are logs, sawn timber, squares, hydraulic timber and sleepers, profiles (decking, joists, panelling, mouldings), veneers and plywood. It also encompasses strip and plywood siding, solid timber flooring and baseboards. Technical director of the project is consultancy ESTEANA, a French-based specialist in life cycle analysis in timber and sustainable construction. Verification of its findings will be undertaken by an independent auditor.

“Once the results of the LCI are in, the Dryades project team will define the validity framework of the LCI and EPD and develop a procedure for project stakeholders,” said ATIBT Project Manager Alessandra Negri.

Potential for upscaling
The Dryades team is also in contact on their potential involvement with Netherlands timber market development body Centrum Hout, which has extensive experience in timber LCA. ESTEANA has started analysis of the LCI data, with the first outcomes expected October. The resulting LCA will then undergo critical review.

“The data collection phase for the EPDs and FDESs will start in November, with the first results expected by the end of April 2022,” said Ms Negri. She added that currently Dryades has a finite objective and end point, in terms of developing EPDs and FDES for the products currently under evaluation. “However, given the importance of the project and the need to update the data – every five years for EPDs – a follow-up will certainly be envisaged,” she said.

Mr Jobbé-Duval said earlier that requirements for product environmental performance verification are also set to grow at European level. “As part of the strengthening of the EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR), the European Commission has drawn up a draft delegated act to make environmental declarations compulsory within the framework of CE European quality assurance marking of construction products,” he said.

 

Forests are mitigators and victims of climate change

Photo: CIFOR

A report from global forest monitoring network ForestPlots.net concludes that intact tropical forests have been surprisingly resilient to man-made climate change. However, it says, ‘many are now reaching the limits of their tolerance to global heating and drying’.

The report, ‘Taking the pulse of earth’s tropical forests using networks of highly distributed forest plots’, draws on the work of ForestPlot.net’s 2,500 affiliate researchers worldwide who operate in international, national and regional groupings. In total the organisation, which is coordinated from Leeds University in the UK, integrates 24 such networks, monitoring 5,138 plots in 59 countries.

It says these networks, such as RAINFOR in South America, AfriTRON in Africa and T-Forces in Asia, have the ‘power to transform tropical forest science and build understanding of tropical forests and their biospheric role’. “Together we have discovered, how, where and why forest carbon and biodiversity are responding to climate change and how they feedback on it,” it states. “This long-term pan-tropical collaboration has revealed a large, long-term carbon sink [in tropical forest] and its trends, as well as making clear which forest processes are affected and the likely future responses of forests as the climate continues to change.”

Variations across continents
The report looks at monitoring network research into the connection between carbon storage and biodiversity in terms of tree species mix. This has found significant variations across continents. It has concluded that South America’s forests are richest in terms of biodiversity, but store least carbon per hectare. Findings also suggest strong carbon-biodiversity relationships are found only in disturbed and secondary forests, but not old-growth. African forests have been found to have most biomass, while in terms of carbon gains, Borneo’s forests are twice as productive as any other.
From this ForestPlots.net concludes that:
• Global-scale ecological modelling must take biological composition into account;
• Each continent needs its own forest research and monitoring programme;
• Each region likely responds to climate change in its own, individual way.

ForestPlots.net ground measurements show the global tropical forests sequestered over one billion tonnes of carbon annually through the 1990s and 2000s – ‘sufficient to significantly slow climate change’. But its research also reveals the impacts that global warming and other human activity are having on forest health, diversity and carbon sink capacity.

Findings include that:
• Maximum temperature and dry season intensity combine to act on tree productivity and mortality to limit forest carbon storage capacity;
• Forests exhibit resilience to low amounts of warming, but in hottest forests biomass carbon levels drop off rapidly.

“Looking forward, key uncertainties that remain concern the responses [to global warming] of tropical biodiversity itself,” concludes ForestPlots.net. “This includes the extent to which the great biocomplexity of tropical forests – the most diverse, productive ecosystems on Earth – will provide an effective insurance policy in the face of rapidly changing climates. To understand this, forest monitoring must continue.”

 

Netherlands reports further rise in certified imports’ market share

Photo: Wijma

Latest analysis of Dutch timber imports reveals a further rise in the proportion certified ‘from demonstrably sustainably managed forests‘ under FSC or PEFC schemes. There has also been an increase in the volume of FLEGT-licensed timber and sheet materials imported from Indonesia.

The report, commissioned by the Netherlands Timber Trade Association (NTTA) undertaken by forest and timber sustainability advisors and analysts Probos, shows that in 2020 93.7% of the 2.047 million m3 of timber and panel products imported by NTTA members (who account for the vast bulk of Dutch imports) was chain of custody certified. This compared with 91.9% of the 1.76 million m3 imported in 2019.

The proportion of the Netherlands’ 319,000 m3 of hardwood imports certified was 67.2%, up from 62.4% in 2019. Within that figure, the percentage of the 269,550 m3 of tropical imports certified was 65.1%, compared to 61.6% in 2019, while that of the 49,482 m3 of temperate hardwood imports was 78.6% as against 67.2%.

The figures show Dutch FLEGT-licensed imports up substantially; from 26,934 m3 in 2019 to 47,944 in 2020. This gave them a 17.8% share of total tropical timber imports. Probos highlighted that a proportion of FLEGT-licensed imports were also certified sustainable.

Looking at other timber product categories, the certified sustainable proportion of the Netherlands’ 1.09 million m3 of softwood imports in 2020 was 98.8%, while for its 616,462 m3 sheet materials import total it was 98.2%.

Increased transparency through Thémis
After reporting on sustainable timber sourcing in the Dutch and Belgian market for 15 years, Probos is now working on a timber data gathering tool and information portal to help timber trade federations across Europe to monitor, benchmark and promote verified sustainable timber procurement in their countries to support sustainable forest management in producer countries.

Launched earlier this year, Thémis is being developed in association with French trade association Le Commerce du Bois (LCB), Fedustria of Belgium, the UK Timber Trade Federation, the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT) and IT company Graphius. Thémis is supported by PPECF and IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative.

By tracking sustainable procurement, says Probos, trade bodies can increase timber trade transparency, monitor progress and target interventions to grow certified timber market share. By highlighting the level of wood sourced sustainably it can also help ‘positively brand the sector and timber generally’. The first round of monitoring amongst members of Fedustria, LCB and ATIBT has taken place.

 

Fair&Precious Partners in the spotlight

In the first of a series of interviews with Fair&Precious partners about their companies, business ethos and ambitions for the sustainable tropical timber campaign, we speak with Vandecasteele Houtimport export manager Geneviève Standaert.

How would you describe Vandecasteele; who you are, what you do and what you stand for?

Geneviève Standaert: Vandecasteele Houtimport is a fifth-generation family-run business importing timber and timber products from over 45 countries worldwide. We’re located in Kortrijk, Aalbeke, Belgium, where we specialise in the import, trading and export of tropical hardwood from Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. The company also supplies Scandinavian and Russian Softwood, Siberian Larch, North American soft and hardwood and European Hardwood.

Established in 1883 by Louis Vandecasteele, the company has been passed down through the generations to current owner Stefaan Vandecasteele. Stefaan took over running the company in 2000 and together with son Louis and daughter Margaux, is keeping the company’s family spirit alive. Strong relationships with customers and suppliers based on mutual trust lie at the heart of the business. Also key is the ability to adapt and react to an ever changing, fast-paced industry, enabling Vandecasteele Houtimport to put customers’ needs first and foremost.

Why did you become a Fair&Precious partner?

Becoming a partner of F&P is a natural step towards our main goal, which is to trade exclusively in certified timber from 2025. We’re aiming to become a European ambassador for certified timber. And we believe all our partners, suppliers, customers and co-workers should share that ambition. The more the merrier!

The European tropical timber sector has battled to hold on to market share in recent years. What would you say are its major challenges?

A major task is to convince our suppliers and customers that certification is the way to go, and key for our business in the long term. So supply and price are challenges, as is raising customer awareness of the issues. Fierce competition from alternative materials, greenwashed with expensive marketing campaigns, is also not helping tropical timber’s image.

Do you believe the tropical timber sector can rebuild its presence in Europe?

Yes, if two goals are met. One is that all forest risk commodities should meet the same regulatory requirements as timber. The second is that all building materials should meet equally strict criteria in such areas as carbon impact and circularity. Virgin plastic and recycled plastic should absolutely not be considered a sustainable, green building material.

In which market do you see greatest possibilities for growing sustainable tropical timber sales?

The building materials market offers most potential. Within this sector, architects and building developers make the key specification decisions and should be the prime target for sustainable tropical timber promotion. Governments can also play a role in driving use of natural, sustainable construction materials and curbing use of non-sustainable products.

Do you see new applications opening for sustainable tropical timber in the future?

We can and must recover construction market share lost by timber due to misinformation about fire resistance, often emanating from other materials sectors. In the past, timber formed a core element of even very large buildings, from cathedrals to major industrial units. It may be difficult to persuade some people of the merits of building with wood, but global growth in timber high-rise, which meet strictest fire safety regulations, shows it can be done.

How can the timber sector grow demand for lesser known sustainable tropical timber species?

We can emphasise that it makes better use of the forest and reduces pressure on more popular species. It’s better for supply and for price. To grow sales, we should sell timber by durability, or even by grain structure and colour rather than species. So, we would sell a durability class I product rather than Padouk, or a chocolate brown durability class 3 product rather than American walnut.

What would be your sales pitch for sustainable tropical timber ?

It’s all about selling the right timber for the right purpose. Tropical timbers, in particular, should be sold on their superior durability, class I and 2, which means they can be used externally without potentially harmful chemical treatment. We should also sell it on the basis that using sustainably sourced tropical timber incentivises uptake of sustainable forest management in tropical countries.

Are you optimistic for the future of the sustainable tropical timber sector?

Yes. We have opportunity and momentum – it’s time for our whole industry to engage in promoting certified tropical timbers.

IDH identifies partnership prospects for forest action

Photo: CIFOR

IDH – The Sustainable Trade initiative is revising its strategy on tropical timber. It’s still a work in progress, but according to Willem Klaassens, IDH Markets and SourceUp programme Director, a core theme is already emerging. It’s that there’s no magic bullet for combating illegal tropical timber trade and deforestation and ensuring sustainability.

“What is needed is a combination of actions; achieving synergies between initiatives, complementing voluntary measures with regulation and strengthening cooperation and partnership between public and private sector and demand and supply-side stakeholders,” said Mr Klaassens. “Only by getting this combination right, will we achieve results.”

IDH works with multiple stakeholders to achieve sustainable trade in global value chains. In recent years it has been active in producer countries on sustainability initiatives for a range of tropical commodities, including soy, palm oil and cocoa, but its tropical timber involvement has been more market focused. “We now think the time is right to get back more on the ground in producer countries on tropical timber projects, notably in central Africa,” said Mr Klaassens. “This follows extensive discussion with stakeholders, but has also been prompted by the advent of the EU Green Deal and growing influence of the carbon agenda. These are raising interest in issues around sustainable tropical timber and deforestation, increasing opportunities for new initiatives.”

One potential aspect of the new IDH strategy, tying in with its aim to encourage increased stakeholder collaboration, is greater engagement with Chinese actors in the tropical trade. “China wields huge market influence, notably in the Congo Basin where it’s estimated to take 50% of timber production,” said Mr Klaassens. “We’re looking at possibilities for connecting with Chinese concessionaries; acting as broker between them and local authorities and communities to develop partnerships; saying to them, ‘we know you’re not yet certified, or adhering to all the rules we’d like you to, but we’re here to guide and help’. We’re also considering setting up an IDH operation in China.”

While IDH continues to support certification, it sees the way forward as certification operating within a sustainable landscape approach. Hence the significance to its strategy going forward of its SourceUp verified sourcing areas programme. With 11 projects underway in tropical countries worldwide, this involves establishment of ‘Compacts’, comprising the range of stakeholders, from small holder forest owners, farmers and SME producers, to major exporters, civil society and regional authorities. These set sustainability priorities and targets – which may include certification – for their area or jurisdiction. Underpinned by the SourceUp platform (www.sourceup.org), the initiative also facilitates investment by buyers and financial institutions in the Compacts.

IDH also founded the Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC) and says it has been successful in bringing together stakeholders to tackle key issues and collating and analysing data to inform sustainable tropical timber market development. Mr Klaassens identified its new Thémis market data gathering tool and portal as having particular potential. IDH sees prospects too to work increasingly closely with the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT). Among its many activities, Mr Klaassens noted its ambition to find synergies between the FLEGT initiative and sustainability certification. ATIBT is also becoming more involved in the STTC Conference, which will run this year under the banner of the STTC and ATIBT’s Fair&Precious tropical timber marketing campaign, entities, which already work together on this newsletter.

Mr Klaassens maintains there remain ‘some grounds for pessimism’ on tropical forest maintenance, supported by a sustainable timber trade. “But the European Green Deal and growing influence of the carbon agenda put things in a new context,” he said. “They create new impetus for action on the forest and that’s always been IDH’s strategy objective – action and impact rather than just talk.”

 

Reports urge legislation and 100% certified procurement to combat deforestation

Photo: CIFOR

The EU’s imports of agricultural and agroforestry commodities resulted in 3.5 million ha of deforestation between 2005 and 2017. This generated 1.8 billion tons of CO2 and placed it second only to China in terms of its trade causing forest loss. These are among headline figures of a new report from the WWF, ‘Stepping Up? The continuing impact of EU consumption on nature worldwide’. Its core conclusion is that further demand-side legislation is needed to ensure that EU commodity supply chains are deforestation-free and that EU consumption is transparently sustainable.

Voluntary sustainability certification of forest management and forest risk commodities and current EU regulation requiring due diligence to ensure imported wood products are legal in supplier countries, says WWF, are not enough alone to halt deforestation. “Importing countries must also take responsibility for the impacts of their use and consumption,” it states. At the same time, however, the latest study from IDH, ‘Understanding sustainable secondary tropical wood products through data’, concludes that if EU 27 and UK imports of these products were 100% certified sustainable, it would have a major benefit in terms of incentivizing forest maintenance and cutting CO2 emissions.

The WWF report takes its title from the EC’s 2019 adoption of the ‘Communication on stepping up EU action to protect and restore the world’s forests’. This pledges the EU to assess measures to reduce the environmental footprint of its consumption, including through new legislation to ensure deforestation-free supply chains. The commitment was confirmed in the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and Farm to Fork Strategy. The WWF report is aimed at encouraging and backing the EU in developing such measures. It maintains that between 2005 and 2017 31% of tropical deforestation ‘embedded in EU imports’ was concentrated in soy, accounting for 89,000 ha of forest loss a year. Palm oil followed at 24%, beef 10%, wood products 8%, cocoa 6% and coffee 5%.

Current EU measures to tackle illegal timber trade are of value, says the WWF, but limited in effect by the fact that a large degree of deforestation is considered legal under tropical supplier countries’ laws. The WWF also says that, in some cases, third party certification schemes have resulted in lower forest loss, but that ‘market uptake is limited and uneven’. The way forward, it maintains, must be new EU supply-side regulation that ensures:
– Products and commodities placed on the EU market are sustainable instead of only considered ‘legal’ according to the country of origin.
– Mandatory requirements are introduced for businesses and the finance sector compelling them to undertake due diligence and to ensure traceability of commodities and supply chain transparency.

The latest IDH report mentioned above looks at environmental positives of EU and UK imports of certified sustainable tropical wood products. It calculates that currently 25-32% of primary and 29%-37% of secondary tropical timber imports are exposed to certification. If imports were 100% certified sustainable, it would positively impact over 18 mill ha semi and natural tropical forests and reduce CO2 emissions by at least 100 million metric tons. “These figures illustrate the necessity of a new way forward, and demand action by all actors to grow demand for verified sustainable tropical timber,” concludes the report.

 

PAFC Congo Basin on track for 2022 launch

Photo: FAO-FLEGT

The development programme of the Pan African Forest Certification Congo Basin scheme was extended to ensure its ‘effective operationalisation’. But the ground-breaking regional sustainable forest management certification initiative is now on track for a launch date of June 2022.

The PAFC CB scheme is an alliance of the PAFC schemes of Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo (RoC), with the Programme for the Promotion of Certified Forest Operations (PPECF) as main donor and the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT) as project lead. The Congo Basin tropical forest covers 200 million ha, spread across six countries; Gabon, Cameroon, RoC, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR) and Equatorial Guinea. “Logging operations take place in 50 million ha, of which 10 million ha is operating to some form of certified management system; 4.5 million ha is under legality certification, 5.5 million ha FSC and 0.6 million ha PEFC sustainability certification,” said PAFC CB coordinator Germain Yéné.

The focus across the region is now on growing and developing sustainable forest management systems, hence the creation of PAFC CB. “We’ve launched this regional initiative because many aspects of forest management in the three countries involved are similar,” said Thomas Seyvet, Junior Development Officer at PEFC International. “They also share a common border, the same language and similar forest legislation. PAFC Gabon, PAFC Cameroon and PAFC Congo staff are volunteers, so having a regional scheme will simplify management, with the goal to have a regional secretariat managing and maintaining it. It will streamline training for certification bodies and the work of accreditation bodies and will also offer more visibility to PAFC generally.”

The three national PAFC schemes, which will be assimilated into PAFC CB, started the standard setting process for the regional scheme in association with ATIBT in 2019. They developed standard setting documents and undertook a multi-media communications programme to engage stakeholders. They also set up a working group, called the Forum, comprising stakeholders, forest sector experts and national PAFC scheme members. “Following intensive discussions at a conference in Libreville in November 2019, the first PAFC CB standard was issued,” said Mr Yéné. This, he added, underwent exhaustive review, with public consultations, pilot and desktop testing. “The revised standard that came out of this was then reviewed at an online Forum meeting in October 2020,” said Mr Yéné. “The final standard was next put to ATIBT for approval, which then submitted the request for endorsement to PEFC International in December.”

Independent assessor on the project is Form International. It is now evaluating ‘conformity of the PAFC CB standard development process and tools’. Subject to this process, endorsement by the general assembly of the PEFC council is envisaged for this November. In the meantime company and auditor training continues, alongside development of the PAFC CB management structure by the three national certification schemes with ATIBT and PEFC, ready for the summer 2022 launch. PEFC sees PAFC CB having potential ultimately to extend to five countries, with DRC and CAR joining Gabon, Cameroon and RoC. “We’ve already had expressions of interest from concession operators in DRC for it to join too,” said Mr Yéné.

 

Adding value in Africa

Photo: Interholco

Interholco’s IFO operation in the Republic of Congo is demonstrating the viability of value-added tropical timber product manufacture in Africa.

At its Ngombé site, the company’s finger-jointed, laminated window scantling plant now has annual production capacity of 5,000 m3. It’s using a spread of timber species, all FSC-certified, selling to window makers in a range of European markets and looking to break into new ones. Interholco’s (IHC) vice-president sales and production Christophe Janssen acknowledged that developing the market for the products was initially a challenge. “Some established customers for our logs and sawn timber were conservative and said you couldn’t do value added production in Africa. They assumed there would be glue and other problems with scantlings, and that they’d cause machining difficulties,” he said. “It was a case of finding a different type of customer willing to try something new. Once we did that, we were then approached by our traditional customers interested in running trials, after which they placed orders.”

IHC said the key to making the operation a success was its focus on consistent quality and performance. It installed latest processing equipment from the outset and has updated it since. Sourcing all its timber from its own concessions gives it a further handle on quality. “We have complete control of what’s going into the production process and, combining this with tried and tested manufacturing methods, backed by regular quality audits, we’ve shown we can match anything on the market,” said Mr Janssen. Providing assurance on performance, IHC scantlings are also accredited to standard CTB-LCA 221 by French timber technical institute FCBA.

IHC produces a number of scantling types, including KKK (three layers of finger jointed lamellas), DKD (with solid outer layers and finger jointed mid-layer), plus bespoke products with two, three or more layers. Sapele is the plant’s main raw material, but it is also manufacturing in Kosipo and developing use of Tali, Bossé, Sipo, Limbali and Padouk. Utilising this spread of species adds to customer choice and, says IHC, helps make most sustainable use of the forest resource. The scantlings first developed a following among customers in France, Germany and Belgium, and are now starting to sell in Spain and Portugal. IHC is also sending trial batches to the UK and US.

There is clearly now growing ambition in value-added timber product manufacture in Africa, underlined by the decision of ministers at last September’s meeting of CEMAC, the Economic Community of Central Africa, to end Congo Basin log exports at the start of 2022. They also backed formation of the Regional Committee for Sustainable Industrial Development of the Timber Industry (CRIB). Interholco is optimistic about developing its value-added business. It sees ‘opportunities for more specialist items for particular industries’, potentially including laminated construction products.

For the full report on IHC’s value-added strategy: https://www.fair-and-precious.org/en/news/333/growing-ambition-in-african-value-addition.