Hardwood Floors - Green Blog: Elizabeth Baldwin

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I Have a Suggestion About the Chicken…

Last year Amy Smith, senior program officer for GFTN-North America, and I were trying to get to an FSC forest area in Peru. We had missing trucks, flat tires, a rickety ferry and then made our way past several small brush fires to eventually, about 5 hours past our scheduled arrival, get to this tiny Peruvian town on the border with Brazil called Inpari. The town had three restaurants—two pizzerias and a chicken place that was closed because it was out of chicken.

My room was the best the town had to offer—it was $17/night (U.S.) and I was proudly told that the price included toilet paper. (But of course no toilet seat.) No hot water, either, and, of course, no AC. They turned off the power around 2 a.m., which meant the meager fan trying to keep me cool went off as well. Power was restored about 6:15 a.m. I know all these times because the roosters were up at 2:30 a.m., apparently upset about the loss of power, and continued crowing right outside my window until I left about 6:45 a.m. (I have a suggestion about how the chicken place could replenish its stock.) I am told that Peruvian roosters often get confused and crow at the moon.

car ferry in Peu

The truck, with all four wheels properly inflated and a freshly repaired spare, backs onto the ferry…

For breakfast, we went to Brazil.

After breakfast (unbelievably, Brazil was out of coffee, so no one was very happy), we went 3-4 hours into the forest to visit logging sites, and to watch skidding operations and a biomass counting project. My boots died somewhere along the way—we tied them up until I got out of the forest.

collapsed boot while hiking in Peruvian forest

collapsed boot while hiking in Peruvian forest

Boot walked to death on a GFTN mission…

boot tied up to hike in Peru

… but tied up to finish off the day.

An important part of making an FSC forest economically viable is developing a market for LKS, Lesser Known Species. I asked Amy about the GFTN’s work.

What is GFTN doing to develop markets for Lesser Known Species?

GFTN has been compiling technical, workability and use information for over 50 lesser known wood species from across the globe with the aim of reducing pressure on threatened or endangered species, increasing the commercial value of forests and enhancing the economic viability of forest management.

Using lesser known species from well-managed forests actually enhances the health of the forest. We look at the potential for these species to be a substitute for other species with high market demand. Using our information, buyers can identify potential alternative wood species and can be pointed directly to suppliers that offer these species within the GFTN network to source the products they need.

If other people want to walk their boots off and experience the first-class luxury of a jungle trip with you, do you have any upcoming missions?

In an effort to drive lasting and positive change in Amazon forests, the GFTN-North America and GFTN-Latin America and the Caribbean programs will be offering their fourth trade mission to South America to help link responsible demand to responsible producers. U.S. buyers will be invited to visit GFTN forest manager and manufacturer participants in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

These trips are an invaluable way for buyers to gain firsthand knowledge of what it means to source responsibly all the way from the forest floor to the factory, and to illustrate the benefits that GFTN provides to its participants. They’re an opportunity for buyers pull on their boots, and get out into the rainforest to see what FSC certification looks like on the ground and how that differs from traditional logging operations. They’ll also have a chance to hear directly from responsible forest operators about the ways that GFTN is assisting them in reaching their certification goals. Boot repair is just part of the service.

These trips have proven to be an effective means of linking up buyers and producers that share a similar commitment to responsible forestry and trade. The face-to-face interaction between buyer and seller and the ability for buyers to see forest and factory operations in person are instrumental in building business relationships. Once those connections are made, it’s much easier for a buyer to find the credibly certified products he or she is looking for.

If you’re interested in attending our next trade mission and would like more information, please contact me at amy.smith@wwfus.org

Posted By Elizabeth At 9:06 AM • Comments (1)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The GFTN Goes Flat (Temporarily)

I’m talking with Amy Smith of the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) about what their organization is doing in the producing forest nations. I know from firsthand experience that one of the things they do is try to keep their jeeps running. See, last year, Amy and I headed to a little corner of Peru for a jungle trip. The night before we leave Lima for the jungle, she says to me, "Don't worry. We’re absolutely organized this time. We have two trucks and we're taking a mechanic with us and lots of water. All will be OK."

You can guess how that worked out.

We arrived at the airport (hours from the jungle where we're going) and of course there are no trucks waiting for us. Eventually we discover that one of their trucks isn’t running at all. The other eventually comes and we hire a taxi to take us as far as the small town outside the concession area, where we'll get another truck from the logging company. The taxi starts off with half our group and the truck (which I am in) follows, but we stop to run a short errand elsewhere in town. The car gets ahead of us and we don't catch up for hours because 15 minutes later, we have a flat.

Flat tire in Peruvian jungle on GFTN trip

Flat tire in Peruvian jungle on GFTN trip

An hour or two later, and a few other minor adventures, oh, and wisely taking the time to get the spare patched (yes, the spare was flat, too), we're on our way again. I’ll tell you where we ended up next week.

The question is, why were we going off to the jungle? To see what the GFTN does on the ground, to help expand legal and sustainable forest trade. I asked Amy for more specifics:

What help do you offer to a producing company?
GFTN has staff in 34 countries with technical expertise in forestry and trade issues, forest policy, and risks associated with particular regions or species. GFTN also provides up-to-date information on best forest management practices, credible certification systems, global forest sector trends, and information on lesser-known species.

We work with the forest managers in key regions where certification is difficult but essential to ensuring sustainability of both forests and supply – areas such as the Russian Far East, the Amazon, the Congo Basin, Borneo and Sumatra. GFTN forest managers have achieved 20.4 million hectares of FSC-certified forest and further manage 5.7 million hectares in progress to FSC certification through GFTN’s “step-wise approach”, which requires that forest participants achieve FSC forest management certification within five years.

What help do you offer a buying company?
More than two-thirds of GFTN participants are “trade participants”: manufacturers, brokers, retailers and end users, both in producer countries and in importing countries such as North America and Europe. These participants span a wide range of products, including flooring, building products, furniture, paper, tissue and packaging.

GFTN works with these companies to help them identify and mitigate supply chain risk, and to progressively increase the amount of credibly certified wood in the supply chain over time.

Click here for a full list of GFTN participants.

Amy Smith during our trip into the Peruvian jungle.

Posted By Elizabeth At 9:14 AM • Comments (3)

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Snakes and the GFTN

Last week, we looked at legality resources and I referenced the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) as a good resource. I've always respected the GFTN's work, particularly the last two letters of the organization's name, the Trade Network part. I appreciate the fact that the GFTN recognizes that a healthy forest industry is a key element in maintaining a healthy forest. They work to research and develop markets for LKS (Lesser Known Species) and to increase the on-the-ground knowledge of the people actually working in the forests.

Last year I was able to spend a couple of weeks on the road, including some jungle time, with Amy Smith, senior program officer for GFTN-North America. Amy was a great travel companion and gave me some very important advice during our trip. She told me that she had been taught that if you saw a snake in the jungle that you should run away immediately. While running you should throw everything you can at the snake—your hat, your jacket, your camera, whatever you had handy. This would not deter the snake, but it would be likely to snap at these objects and hopefully use up some of its venom in doing so. And then, “when the snake catches you—AND IT WILL,” she emphasized, “you have a fighting chance of surviving the bite.”

I asked Amy for some more stories and to tell me more about her work with the GFTN. She agreed to tell me to answer my questions between battles with snakes and spiders and what follows is part one of an unknown number of parts of Jungle Tales with Amy and news from the GFTN.

Can you tell me a bit about the history of the GFTN?
The Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, so it’s a great time to reflect on how we’ve evolved from our beginnings in 1991 in the U.K. At that time, WWF presented a plan to a small number of forest products companies to address the deforestation crisis—the plan wasn’t the expected call to halt logging in tropical forests, rather it was a somewhat revolutionary idea to provide economic incentives to keep tropical forests standing.

These 20 companies bought into the idea, and joined together as the WWF 1995 Group, with the ambitious goal to phase out all wood and wood products not originating from “well managed forests” by the year 1995. It soon became clear that much more time would be needed to reach this target and that 1995 was overly optimistic, but the momentum created by the 1995 group was instrumental in changing the face of forest management and trade.

The work of the WWF 1995 Group laid the groundwork for the GFTN that exists today—an organization that spans across the globe, connecting forest products companies in value-building relationships as they work together to safeguard the world’s forests, and the communities, economies and ecosystems that depend upon them.

So how big is the GFTN now?
GFTN works with more than 280 companies in 34 countries. Together these companies represent 19% of the global annual trade in forest products with a combined $73 billion (U.S.) in sales. GFTN helps these companies achieve tangible business benefits through access to GFTN’s network of technical experts, gaining a better understanding of their supply chains and driving demand for credibly certified forests.

Next week Amy and I will look at some of the current GFTN activities and how they work to protect all the forests and the inhabitants there—even the snakes.

Amy Smith WWF Elizabeth Baldwin

Amy Smith and I with the WWF Panda at the GFTN office in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Posted By Elizabeth At 10:11 AM • Comments (0)

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Resources for the Lacey Act and Legality

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has sent out a request for public comments on the implementation of the Lacey Act amendment. The deadline to submit comments is April 14, 2011. APHIS is soliciting these comments in preparation for its official report to Congress. Their report must evaluate the Lacey Act declaration requirement; the potential to harmonize the declaration with other applicable import regulations; the cost of preparing and submitting the declaration; and analyze the act's impact on illegal logging and trade.

Since Lacey is in the news again, I thought I’d post a few legality resources.

APHIS is responsible for collecting the Lacey import declarations. The APHIS website offers the official government position on Lacey and the requirements.

The International Wood Products Association (IWPA) has a due diligence package to assist their members and additional information on ensuring legality available for both members and non-members to download. Be sure to check out their Q&A Guides.

The World Wildlife Fund is an extremely well known environmental organization that promotes the responsible use of the world's resources. Their program, the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) is designed to network responsible companies and to eliminate illegal logging. Joining their program would provide a great deal of support for your company's work in verifying your sourcing. They also have a number of excellent online guides including a new interactive Guide to Legal and Responsible Sourcing.

WRI's Sustainable Procurement of Forest Products: This is an excellent resource with guides for legal sourcing and examples of documentation. Two very comprehensive guides on "Keeping it Legal" are available free. The WRI is also leading a group called the Forest Legality Alliance, which is developing online tools for legality management.

The Global Forest Registry is a great online resource for determining risk.

Expect more legality resources to be available in the future. Many groups are developing guides to make it easier for the international legal timber trade to expand. And as they do, U.S. consumers can grow ever more confident that their purchases of imported wood are legal and are helping develop the international economy and protect forests around the world.

Posted By Elizabeth At 11:09 AM • Comments (0)

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Gohowood in Japan

In 2006, the Japanese government passed a law to promote “green purchasing.” This included wood and wood products that were verified as being legally and sustainably produced. This is called “Gohowood” in Japan.

Japanese is a complicated language. One sound can have multiple meanings—the sound “ko,” for example, could be “child,” “small size,” or “lake” to name just a few. Meaning is determined both by context and the character used for the word. “Go” in this case is “to meet” and “Ho” is “the law.” So “Gohowood” is “wood that meets the law.”

While in Japan this past December, I had an opportunity to attend a symposium on Gohowood. The symposium was well-organized and there were presentations from both Indonesian and Malaysian organizations regarding efforts they were undertaking to reduce illegal logging and provide a more transparent sourcing program for their international buyers. Since slightly under half of Japan’s plywood comes from these two countries, as well as a variety of other wood products, ensuring a stable and legal and sustainable supply from them should be top priority.

Unlike the often quoted “fact-based, not document-based” comments on the Lacey Act, or the often recommended “risk-management” approach to sourcing, Japan is very focused on receiving governmental documentary evidence. They do often consider certification to be a form of evidence, but what they really like are government documents.

Both Indonesia and Malaysia recognize this and are working to establish government structures that will satisfy this market. In contrast, most U.S. efforts to penetrate the Japanese market with either lumber or value added goods have been made by the industry itself. While there is no question that the U.S. forests are some of the best managed in the world, with very low risk of illegal material entering the supply chain, Japan still wants some form of government stamp to prove that.

There is good demand for wood flooring in Japan, both solid and engineered. Because of other Japanese regulations, the engineered market is very hard to penetrate, but it seems to me that with the demand for “Gohowood” here, the U.S. companies should find a market. Many states are very active in supporting their industries here and could provide that stamp of legality that the Japanese are seeking. AHEC (American Hardwood Export Council) has done a good job in establish a presence in Japan and trying to show that U.S. wood is Gohowood, but clearly more work is needed.

I have to say that the thing I found most interesting about the symposium was that the Japanese industry attendance was very small. There were dozens of Malaysians and Indonesians, a contingent of Americans and Europeans, and a number of Japanese from ENGO’s, and various forestry associations. But there were only a handful of actual Japanese buyers there. While I think part of the fault lies with the organizers (I don’t believe it was very well-advertised), I think it is also an indication of the industry trend. They want to leave it to the governments to establish the rules and procedures. The Japanese industry is relying on their government to work out agreements with the foreign supplying countries and to say what wood they can buy. The Japanese companies are not aggressively seeking the information themselves. It is a very different approach then what Lacey demands of the U.S. industry or the new EU Timber Procurement Law will place on European importers. We’ll have to watch and see how well it works.

For more information on Gohowood in Japan, please see the Gohowood link.

Posted By Elizabeth At 9:41 AM • Comments (0)

Green Blog: Elizabeth Baldwin

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