Summary
• Certification in Africa is driven by demand from Europe and the UK.
• The IFIA is aiming for 10 million ha of FSC-certified forest by 2012.
• Certification is costly in Africa.
• FLEGT and proof of legality measures are considered steps towards certification.
• Ghana may sign a Voluntary Partnership Agreement next month.

In the past year or so, verification of sources of African timber has come on in leaps and bounds.

No-one would argue that a lot of work still needs to be done but, driven by demand from Europe, and the UK in particular, many of the shipments leaving African shores now carry proof of legality, and some of them are Forest Stewardship Council certified. Add to this the work being done under the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process and progress looks very positive.

Hervé Bourguignon, general secretary of the Inter-African Forest Industries Association (IFIA), is pleased with what has been achieved “but we still have an awful lot of work to do”, he said.

With 750,000ha in the Congo Basin FSC certified, and several concessions in Gabon and Cameroon close to their final audit, the IFIA expects around 2.5-3 million ha will be certified by the end of next year. It has placed an obligation on all its members to have a legality certificate by the end of 2009, resulting in around 15-16 million ha being covered by Origine Légale des Bois (OLB), and has set a goal of 10 million ha FSC certified by 2012.

Potential bstacles

However, there are two potential obstacles. The first is the cost – gaining certification in Africa is very expensive. “It’s all the more expensive because we are working in countries where the governance is quite low so often we have to compensate for things that should be done by the state,” said Mr Bourguignon.

The second is the need for more uniform guidelines. “The guidelines have not been established through the normal process of the national initiative; they have been set up by verification bodies and they are all different,” he said. “Once these guidelines are agreed it will be easier.”

Rupert Oliver, of Forest Industries Intelligence, agrees that the financial burden is heavy. “The costs of auditing are very minor,” he said. “The real costs come in changing the way forests are managed – they have to provide a huge amount of infrastructure for social measures.”

He cited the work CIB did with the pygmy, especially in mapping their native resources, to achieve FSC certification in the Congo Basin.

This is where the FLEGT voluntary partnership agreements (VPA) can help. Funded by the supplier country government and the EU, it could provide a step towards certification. Ghana has been in negotiations for some time and may be ready to sign a VPA next month. “Once we have put in measures for the VPA, we believe it will be easier to jump on any of the certification processes,” said Dr Ben Donkor, manager of the Ghana Forestry Commission in London.

As the EU moves to stop the import of illegal timber, the VPA will also ensure market access for Ghana, he said.

Ubangi Timber Ltd, which trades solely in African timber, has investments in three mills in the Congo and has offered them financial help to gain FSC certification. “We would like to see them achieve full chain of custody,” said director David Steele.

In the meantime the company, which has FSC chain of custody and is set to adopt The Timber Trade Federation‘s Responsible Purchasing Policy (RPP), relies on proof of legality with letters from the countries’ governments and the mills, one of which has OLB certification.

Timbmet tries to give its business to companies that are making efforts towards legality and certification and rewards them with the verified progress label, said head of environment Chris Cox. “If they can offer us legality certificates, we take that into account, and we buy FSC where we can,” he said. “However, proof of legality is not always available.”

Certification reality

Five years ago, he said, people thought that FSC-certified African timber was a “distant pipe dream”, but the company now receives FSC-certified shipments which, a year ago, would have had an OLB certificate of legality.

Danzer UK Ltd imports timber from its parent company’s concessions in Congo Brazzaville, which has FSC controlled wood status, and Democratic Republic of Congo, where, said managing director Ken Walsh, the political instability makes establishing a forest management plan for certification more difficult.

When it comes to sourcing from third parties, Danzer, which has signed up to the TTF’s RPP, has clear guidelines. “We’re working on having legality as a minimum criterion,” said Mr Walsh. “We assess our suppliers, make them aware of our expectations and needs and try to get them to move forward on the same basis that we are.

“It’s a stepwise approach so legality is the minimum standard that is required when you’re trying to get people to move forward.”

As a concession holder in Africa, Danzer is “very much on the radar,” he said, so ensuring legality and pursing certification has had marketing advantages with UK customers. “They feel quite isolated from the realities down there so they need to feel they are dealing with credible people,” he said.

Danzer has been operating in Africa for more than 30 years and Mr Walsh first visited the area when he joined the company in 1992. “A lot of the disciplines that are in place now, were in place then,” he said. “It gives me peace of mind that it’s not just a reaction to the market; we were looking after the forests back then.”

While he acknowledges that none of the formal processes – certification or a VPA – is easy, they are welcomed. “Everything that helps the legitimate timber trade and removes the capacity for illegal timber to enter the supply chain has got to be good news,” he said.