Forests for People

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Promoting legal timber trade

for sustainable forest management

Marieke Wit and René Boot, Tropenbos International;

Ton van der Zon, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of Ghana; Marnix Becking, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

and Rob Busink, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the Netherlands

or the past 20 years, the Dutch Government Position Paper

on Tropical Forests (RTR) has guided the international

and bilateral forest-related policies of the Netherlands.

The Policy, signed in 1992 by five ministries, committed the

Dutch Government to a minimum annual financial contribu-

tion of €68 million towards the sustainable management of the

world’s forests, with at least one third of this amount earmarked

for tropical rainforests. The main objective of the RTR was ‘to

encourage the preservation of the tropical rainforests through

balanced and sustainable land and forest use, with a view to

halting the current rapid process of deforestation and other

environmental damage and degradation’. The focus has shifted

over the years from nature conservation towards sustainable

use and the economic importance of forest resources, as well as

increased integration of forest programmes in poverty reduction

strategies, the promotion of sustainably produced wood and

discouragement of trade in illegally harvested wood.

Over the last decade, there has been a growing awareness among

consumers and private enterprises in the Netherlands regarding the

impact of consumption on biodiversity in developing countries. In the

broader framework of international forest and biodiversity policies,

several ministries work together to make commodity

chains more sustainable, with a focus on greening the

trade chains of those products that currently contribute

to deforestation (such as timber, palm oil and soy) and

on increasing productivity and efficiency of agriculture to

reduce the pressure on existing forest areas. High priority

is given to the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance

and Trade (FLEGT) process in combating import of ille-

gally harvested timber.

Since 2010, the development cooperation policy of the

Netherlands has undergone a substantial reorientation

with an emphasis on the role of economic investment

and entrepreneurship as the engine for development.

Development aid will focus on four themes, which

reflect Dutch specific expertise: 1. Water, 2. Food

Security, 3. Security & the legal order, and 4. Sexual &

Reproductive Health and Rights. The number of partner

countries has been reduced to 15, mainly countries in

Africa.

The formal sectoral policy on tropical forests has

been transformed into a more trans-sectoral approach

to forest ecosystems. Sustainable supply chains are

still high on the agenda and are supported through the

Chainsaw milled lumber is openly traded in Ghana’s lumber markets, such as the

Sokoban market in Kumasi

Chainsaw milling provides a lot of employment to many people in

Ghana, for example as carrier of lumber out of the forest

Image: Tropenbos International