EU and Ghana strike deal on illegal timber
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BRUSSELS, Belgium—The European Union and Ghana struck a deal Wednesday to stop exports of illegal timber, aiming to halt rampant deforestation in the West African country.
It is the first of several agreements Europe wants to make with developing nations to curb the trade in illegal logging that can destroy tropical forests faster than they can grow back, undermining efforts to curb global warming.
The deal will certify that Ghanaian timber sold to Europe has been felled sustainably.
Jade Saunders of the European Forest Institute, or EFI, said this can also help European purchasers because they can assure customers that the wood they use is legal -- something that governments increasingly ask for in public procurement.
Some 60 percent of logging in Ghana is illegal, according to the World Bank.
Timber nets the country some $400 million a year, forming the country's fourth major export behind gold, tourism and cocoa. More than half of Ghanaian wood exports end up in Europe, mostly in Italy, Germany and France.
Hard and often dark-colored tropical wood is sought-after for furniture.
Ralph Ridder of the EFI said consumers had to be aware that cheap wood may have been felled illegally, causing environmental and social damage.
"If you only look for the cheapest product, you may well be getting illegal wood," he said. "Once implemented, this agreement will mean that buying wood from Ghana ensures that consumers, industry and government in the EU are doing the right thing."
The EU is currently negotiating similar deals with Indonesia, Cameroon, Malaysia and the Republic of Congo and says it hopes the first certified exports will be shipped in late 2009.
The EU Forest and Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, or FLEGT, program follows a U.S. effort to ban the import and sale of illegal wood.
Saunders warned that illegal timber can still find markets. Exports to Asia have increased over recent years as fast-growing China and other nations call for more raw materials to make goods for their own customers or to sell abroad.
About half of Chinese wood imports are processed and re-exported to Europe and the United States, she said.
Environmental campaigners WWF said in July that almost a fifth of the wood the European Union bought in 2006 came from illegal or suspected illegal sources, mostly Russia, Indonesia and China.
They claimed that the EU program would stop less than 10 percent of illegal wood entering the European market because there were no talks planned with Russia and China and no move to tackle processed products.
An estimated 32 million acres of forest are lost to loggers, farmers and fires every year, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Most of it is in the
Trees, and especially the diverse vegetation of tropical rainforests, soak up and store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. Scientists estimate that deforestation accounts for up to 20 percent of the carbon added by man to the atmosphere.
Climate negotiators acknowledge that efforts to contain global warming will fail unless the loss of forests is checked.
