FEBO held its first International Congress in
Basel with as subject “timber and environment”. This is not a coincidence as
ecological aspects are every day more important for the sector. The public
opinion is highly sensible, NGO's are engaged and the EU Commission developed an
action plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade
(FLEGT).
FEBO is since a long time conscious of these issues and adopted a new article
in its constitution condemning illegal logging and related trade, as well as
recognizing of the independent certification of sustainable forest management.
Moreover FEBO members adopted a Code of Conduct recommending to take all steps
possible to source their timber and timber products responsibly. Point of view
of the EU Commission FEBO was very pleased with the fact that the European
Commission had accepted to attend its Congress at quite a high level of
representation. Not only the Commission’s very presence but evenso Mr. Jeremy
Wall’s encouraging key note address underscored, and this beyond any doubt, that
the overall co-ordination of the interests of all stakeholders with in the
timber trade business should be with FEBO. His presentation included furthermore
the updates on FLEGT, on the demand side (EC and member state dialogue with the
private sector, support to the Timber Trade Action Plan and other projects) and
on the supply side (partnership agreements negociations, involvement and support
to FLEG initiatives such as ENA, FLEG, AFLEG, ASEAN FLEG). Jürgen Blaser, former
President of ITTO gave a global overview of the problem of illegal logging, the
FLEG project, the different definitions of illegality which creates problems. He
came to the conclusion that the measures to improve forest sector governance are
prevention, detection and suppression. Private initiatives on illegal logging
Heiko Liedeker made a presentation on FSC standard on controlled wood. Oliver
Scholz, communications Manager of PEFC informed about the position of PEFC and
the background of the decisions taken. Andy Roby gave an update on the EU Timber
Trade Action Plan, TTAP aims to achieve verified legality of 20 % of the
tropical timber imports into the partner Timber Trade Federations of the
partner’s countries by 2010. He gave an overview of the key achievements: the
website developed, EU-wide coordinating body to develop a harmonised purchasing
policy for the sector, risk assessment tool and CoC developed for external
consultants.
Jörg Reimer explained about the pilot project in Switzerland to provide some
criterias for responsible timber purchasing, a cooperation between WWF,
Greenpeace and the Swiss Timber Industry. A first step will be a pilot project
with selected timber traders, testing a guideline for the exclusion of illegally
harvested wood which is partly basing on essential requirements of the FSC
standard of controlled wood. Conclusions of the timber trade The timber trade,
specially the smaller enterprises, are concerned about the overload of
measurements concerning the eradication of illegal timber, as well on the demand
side as on the supply side. They do of course agree that measurements should be
taken, but they want this in a well structured way and under the motto “keep it
simple”. They are very much aware that the future supply of their tropical wood
will come from the Voluntary Partnership Agreements for which the EU Commission
entered in negociations. The countries concerned are : Cameroon, Ghana,
Indonesia and Malaysia. Wood based Panels Reto Coutalides, gave an exposure
concerning the requirements to wood based panels. Specially in public buildings
problems caused to the formaldehyde emission of wood based panels, were
detected, even when the “standard E-1” was taken into account. He stated that
effective data on formaldehyde emission are missing for the planning of
buildings: architects should have more knowledge on the possible formaldehyde
emission in the indoor application. The theoretical and only industry based test
method guaranteeing E-1 is unsuitable for optimizing the indoor climate. Kris
Wijnendaele, Secretary general of EPF, emphasized that he is absolutely in
favour of a closer co-operation with FEBO. He invited FEBO to take part in the
CEI-Bois Road Map 2010 process, to use the exhibition about “tackle climate
change”, and to distribute the publication about tackling climate change. Evenso
FEBO should deliberate with EPF on what concerns issue of formaldehyde. He
stated that the European wood-based panels industry is committed to ensuring the
quality and safety of its products and the protection of the environment. All
EPF members are engaged to comply to the lowest formaldehyde emission class (E1)
in the EU standards, EPF continues to collect data and distribute correct
scientific information. He evenso added an statement about the compulsory CE
marking of construction products, the wood-based panels : EN 13986 The Swiss
producer of wood based panels Kronospan Switzerland Ltd, last but not least,
gave his point of his view on ecological aspects of wood based
panels.
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