Timber Trade

Nowadays it is widely assumed that the commercialization of illegally harvested wood products contributes, along with other factors, to the process of deforestation and forest degradation. According to recent IPCC estimates, around 20% of global CO2 emissions are produced as a consequence of land use change, deforestation and forest degradation.

The growing global demand for wood and its products, together with institutional and governance deficiencies in the forest sector in some wood-producing countries, particularly in developing countries, make the practice of trade in illegally harvested wood an international problem that requires global and diverse responses that affect not only the commercial regulation of this product but also social, political and economic aspects that improve the governance of wood-producing countries.

In 2003, the European Commission approved the Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), which proposes different measures to combat the problem of illegal logging and its associated trade. . Among the proposals included in this action plan are the requirement of legality requirements in green public purchases, the development of bilateral trade agreements with wood exporting countries and, in particular, legislative ones with the publications of the FLEGT and EUTR regulations.

Lignum Data is the Statistical Information System on the management of the processing of FLEGT licenses and responsible declarations and EUTR controls in Spain and provides, among other information, the volume and nature of wood products marketed for the first time in the market of the European Union and the agents that market them.

To find out more: Timber Trade