CHINA’S EFFORTS FOR TIMBER VERIFICATIONLu Wenming
Chinese Academy of Forestry, Wan Shou Shan, Beijing 100091, China

The paper outlined the general description of China’s mis-conducts of forest harvesting, illustrated the measures theforestry authority takes to cope with these mis-conducts, acknowledged the current irrelevance to the procurement
policies of Japan, and prospected the future perspectives of tackling them by developing timber tracing system,
establishing company credibility system, implementing government green timber procurement policy, and carrying out
forest certification, so as to promote responsible and sustainable forest management.
Keywords: mis-conduct of forest harvesting, timber certificate scheme, government green timber procurement policy,
timber tracing system, forest certification

In a recent decade, illegal logging and illegal trade
has been rampant in a global context. Due to such illegal
logging, many countries, such as Indonesia andCambodia in Asia, Russia in Europe, Brazil in Latin
America, Papua New Guinea in Oceania and Democratic
Republic of Congo in Africa, are suffering serious
environmental problems of mass destruction of virgin,
natural and secondary forest resources, threatened
habitats of rare and endangered animal and plant
species, and rapid loss of biodiversity, also causing a lotof economic problems such as loss of tax revenue andsocial problems such as local society conflict etc.
Tackling illegal logging is a global challenge.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Since 1998 when adopting Nature Forest Protection
Program (NFPP), China’s timber import has increased
significantly with a total of 134 million cubic metres inround wood equivalent (RWE) in 2005, especially fromRussia and Indonesia where illegal logging is still
rampant.
China is now the world’s both leading importer andexporter of timber and timber products. The Governmentof China attaches great importance to the sustainable
forestry development and takes it as the solefundamental forestry development strategy in a long run.
Through various efforts for a long period, theGovernment of China has obtained great achievements
in tackling illegal logging and illegal trade. At present,
there is very very rare case of illegal timber trade due toprevious several years of continued joint efforts by theforestry sector, commerce sector and custom sector etc,
as well as bilateral cooperation with respective trade
countries. Forest harvesting has been also in a righttrack in meeting with relevant laws and regulations.
However, due to several reasons, there are still some,although quite small, cases of mis-conducts of forest
harvesting which does not fully comply with relevant lawsand regulations. We can not regard all thesemis-conducts of forest harvesting as illegal logging, but
this does have some negative implication. As such, theforestry authority has been taking a serious of measuresin tackling these mis-conducts of forest harvesting.
Furthermore, the Government of China, mainly

through the State Forestry Administration (SFA) and theMinistry of Commerce (MOC), is actively tackling thisissue by improving domestic policy and regulation
monitoring system and strengthening international
cooperation. China is now a member of both North East
Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG)
Process and South East Asia Forest Law Enforcement
and Governance Ministerial Conference Process.
TIMBER CERTIFICATE SCHEME
China has had a very effective forest resourcesmonitoring system for several decades. This systemaims to protect and utilize forest resources andecological environment, to strengthen the monitoring
management for forest conservation, forest harvesting,timber production, timber marketing and timber
consumption etc, and to actively extend technology forsaving the timber and substituting the timber, so as toaccelerate the development of resource saving andenvironmentally friendly society.
The key element of this system is the documentation
management with timber certificate issuance in the stageof forest harvesting and timber transportation andmarketing. This system may be called as “timbercertificate scheme”. Annual allowance cut (AAC) quota,
forest harvesting plan and forest harvest certificate(timber concession), as well as code of forest harvesting
and reasonable timber making are very strictlyimplemented. The forest authority checks the AAC quota
and forest harvesting certificate and verification of timber
origin (also through stamp labeling (seal) and forest
harvesting certificate and document), as well as timbertransportation certificate and buying invoice (alsothrough timber transportation certificate and document).
In some places, the forestry authority also checks timber
selling certificate and document in timber marketingstage and timber processing certificate and document intimber processing stage when these regulations areapplicable. The forest authority is granted by the laws
and regulations to sternly deal with any cases of logging
without any certificate, stolen logging and severe
deforestation.
Suchstrengthened
monitoring
management system for the timber origin and marketingis proved to be very effective.

However, there is no any further custody
management after the timber is sold out, such as fortimber processing (some places has), product packaging,product loading and unloading, product transportation,
product marketing and product consumption etc. As such,it is eventually impossible to identify the origin of timber
just from the timber products. The monitoring system forsuch chain of custody should be further strengthened.
The government is supposed to strengthen timbermonitoring management system through developing plan,
improve laws and regulations and standards, enhance
policy guidance, increase technical support, strengthen
publicity and education, and enhance institutional
development. The development of timber tracing system
for whole stages of chain-of-custody is also being
suggested[1].
RESPONSE TO
PROCUREMENT POLICIES OF JAPANIt is quite encouraging that Japan adopted theprocurement policies to tackling illegal logging throughverify the legality and sustainability of timber. This is notjust the procurement policy itself, but is a comprehensive
system which also includes the supporting mechanism ofverification of legality through sectoral and self
verification, as well as sustainability through forest
certification scheme both for forest management andchain of custody[2,3]. It is also quite encouraging that thispolicy has been proved to be effective just for less than
one year, and there are a number of countries such as
Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Russia
which actively respond the policy.
Very unfortunately, however, China has not had at
the moment a complete timber tracing and monitoring
management system, and its current timber certificate
scheme just cover the custody before the timber isprocessed. So, it is impossible to identify or verify theorigin of timber just from the final timber products. As
such, the procurement policies of Japan are notapplicable to China at the moment.
Nevertheless, as both China and Japan areimportant timber trade partners due to great andcontinuously increased timber products export from
China to Japan (furniture and plywood), it is timely that
China needs to think about the actions in respond to theprocurement policies of Japan, not only for trade market
access but also for the responsible and sustainable
forest management within China which is the primaryand final objective of forestry development in China.
FUTURE PERSPECTIVE
It is recognized that like many countries in the world,
China faces challenges in timber monitoring systemalong with all chain of custody due to technical, financial
and other constraints. However, a lot of efforts are being
initiated by the government, the academia, and theindustry to improve such system.
Efforts by the government
The government has made a lot of efforts to improveforest laws and regulations, enhance its forest law

enforcement, and strengthen the capacity of forest law
enforcement expertise. Strengthened forest law
enforcement was listed by the State Forestry
Administration as one of the major two tasks of theforestry sector across the country in 2004.
The government also encourages forest certification
as the market based instrument to promote sustainable
forest management. The State Council (SC), China’s top
governing body, stipulated in its Resolution to Accelerate
Forestry Development “to actively carry out forest
certification work and try to be in line with international
practices as soon as possible”. The State Forestry
Administration is now initiating the National Forest
Certification Scheme of China. The Chinese Academy ofForestry (CAF) had already developed the National
Standard for Forest Certification in China (for forestmanagement) and has nearly finished the developmentof the National Standard for Chain-of-Custody
Certification in China (for COC), both of which arecommissioned by the State Forestry Administration.
Besides, the Chinese Academy of Forestry is also in theprocess of establishing, under the support of theInternational Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (ICBR)(which is also affiliated under the State Forestry
Administration) and Zhejiang Provincial Forestry
Department (ZPFD), an independent and third party
forest certification body to be accredited by both
Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA)
and State Forestry Administration. It is expected that thisNational Forest Certification Scheme of China will beformally launched within this year of 2007[4].
As the National Forest Certification Scheme of
China is currently aimed at domestic objectives topromote sustainable forest management, it is quite
enough for meeting the requirement of procurement
policies of Japan in terms of legality of timber origin,regardless whether China’s scheme could be or not berecognized by Japan. It is known to all that currently
there are dozen different forest certification schemes in
the world, international such as FSC and PEFC, regionalor national. The standards among different schemes aredifferent, so the sustainability to be verified according todifferent standards may not be mutually recognized, but
the legality of different schemes should not be doubt tobe clear.
In terms of forest certification practices, as ofDecember 31, 2006, there have been 5 forest
management units certified by FSC scheme for forest
management with a total forest area of 442,500 ha andcovering both natural forests and plantation, and 221
timber processing companies certified by FSC scheme
for chain-of-custody, including those in Hong Kong,
Macau and Taiwan.
Efforts by the academia
The academia, mainly the Chinese Academy ofForestry (CAF) which is the national research institution
on forestry sector in China, is currently initiating
government green timber procurement policy and timbertracing system to the government for consideration asvery effective measures to tackle mis-conducts of forest
harvesting in China and to promote responsible andsustainable forest management. This initiative is also
submitted to the British Government for possible fundingand it is likely that the initiative is to be funded for further[5]research .

tackling any mis-conduct of forest harvesting.
Efforts by the industryAccording to the proposed government green timber
procurement policy, all the government organizations
and government-funded institutions across the country
will only buy the timber products listed in the government
endorsed timber products and timber producing
companies, which could either verify the legality of timber
origin or verify that the timber products is made fromtimber coming from sustainably managed forests
certified by either National Forest Certification Schemeof China or any internationally recognized forest
certification scheme such as FSC or PEFC.
At present, there are two kinds of governmentprocurement policies, both of which prove to be quite
effective. One is for general commodity items, mainly for
key government infrastructural projects and for major
government consumption of vehicles and electronics aswell as some special services such as printing andconference services etc. The other one is very much
related to forestry sector, and of course could beextended to the tracing of timber origin.
Just on October 24, 2006, the Ministry of Finance(MOF) and the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) jointly issued the government
green product procurement policy. It has been effectivefrom January 1, 2007 for all government organizations
and government-funded institutions in central andprovincial levels, and will be effective from January 1,
2008
for
all
governmentorganizations
andgovernment-funded institutions across the country. This
government green product procurement policy is focusedon the “green products”, which means that the process ofmanufacture is environmentally friendly with minimum
damage both for human health and the environment. The
first list of this policy includes 856 products in 14
categories by 81 companies, which cover 17 products by
9 wood-based panel companies, 24 products by 10
wooden flooring companies and 6 products by 5 furniturecompanies. All these products and companies are
granted with environmental certification/verification
labels by government accredited certification/verification
bodies[6]. Although currently the policy does not mention
any forest certification or even the verification of legalityof timber origin, it is a great signal that eventually theverification of legality of timber origin and forest
certification could be incorporated into the current policy
or as a separate government green timber procurement
policy as suggested by the academia.
With regard to the timber tracing system, it is also
the domestic need of China to improve the present“timber certificate scheme” which just traces timber flowfrom logging to processing but no furthermore. The
proposed timber tracing system will fill such gap so thatthe end users, even the end users from the countries
importing timber products from China, could be able toidentify the legality and/or sustainability of the timber
products they buy. Although actually it is a challenging
task to well develop such timber tracing system due totechnical constrains, it is still encouraging that once thistimber tracing system is developed, it will surely improve
the timber monitoring management system, thus
encouraging the good conduct of forest harvesting andresponsible forest management, and from the other side

The timber industry itself is also realizing theimportance of responsible timber processing behavior.
China Timber Distribution Association (CTDA, a timbermarketing association), which consists of nearly 600
major timber processing companies across the country
covering manufacturing, marketing (whole sale or retail),international trade and research sub-sectors etc, isinitiating a pilot campaign of “Credibility Assessment
System for Timber Sector in China”. Such system
consists of two aspects, “Qualified Suppliers Assessment
System for Timber Sector in China” and “CompanyCredibility Assessment System for Timber Sector inChina”. The key point of such system is to regulate
codes of conduct for the timber sector (both forprocessing and marketing through government behavior).
At present, China Timber Distribution Association ispersuading the government, mainly through theState-owned Assets Supervision and Administration
Commission of the State Council to adopt such system
as a government procurement policy. The systemcontains a lot of assessment indexes classify into 4
grades, marked with A, B, C and D, and value as points
with full points of 100. Such indexes cover mainly 6 fields,such as basic qualification certification and assessment,
basic management and competition level assessment,
basic management capacity assessment, basic
economic debt-paying capacity assessment, marketing
credibility record assessment, and social responsibility
assessment[7]. If the system is adopted by theState-owned Assets Supervision and Administration
Commission of the State Council (it is likely), all thegovernment-owned companies have to abide by thissystem as the supplier chain, and all thegovernment-funded institutions shall be encouraged tobuy the products manufactured by the listed companies(both processing and marketing). The social
responsibility assessment may include the label orrecord showing or verifying that the timber products are
made of timber coming from certified or legally sourced
forest resources, and some others. Currently the social
responsibility assessment does not include timber
legality or sustainability, but it is likely to include as there
is an effort for appealing China Timber DistributionAssociation to include the forest certification (especiallyCOC label) into the assessment system, and try to
persuade this association to increase the weight ofpoints if the products is certified or legally sourced. This
will also be an effective tool for verify the legality orsustainability of timber origin.
CONCLUSION
It is quite clear that at the moment, the procurement
policy of Japan has little implication in China as it is notapplicable to China. However, as the Chinese
Government and the Chinese people are realizing thatthe responsible forest management is increasingly
important, more and more efforts will be made from all
works of life to promote responsible and sustainable
forest management. Government green timber
procurement policy, timber tracing system, forest
certification schemes (whether national or international)
and timber company credibility assessment system, andmaybe some more others, all will surely improve theverification of legality and sustainability of timber origin,and will very easily link to the procurement polices ofJapan, and any other countries around the world.
China attaches great important to the international
cooperation, also in the forestry and timber trade sector.
It will have a brighter future for both China and Japan,
and all other timber trade partners, to work andcooperate together to make full use of all kind ofapproaches, schemes, mechanisms etc to promoteresponsible and sustainable forest management andinternational timber trade.

[4] Lu Wenming etc, Forest Certification in China, 2007.
[5] Lu Wenming, “Promote FLEGT Process in China
through Improving National Forest Certification Schemeof China, Developing Government Green Timber
Procurement Policy and Developing Timber Tracing
System for Certified or Legally Logged and TradedTimber”, Project Proposal to UK FCO, 2006.
[6] Ministry of Finance and State Environmental
Protection Administration, Notes for Implementation ofGovernment Procurement on Environmentally Labeled
Products, 2006.

REFERENCES[1] Lu Wenming etc, Effectives Approaches to Promote
FLEGT, 2007 (paper to be published by a journal ofWorld Forestry Research).
[2] Forestry Agency of Japan, Guideline for Verification
on Legality and Sustainability of Wood and Wood
Products, 2006.
[3] Japan Federation on Wood Industry Associations,relevant documents on Sustainable Green Ecosystem
Council, 2005.

[7] China Timber Distribution Association, Application
Report for Carrying Out Pilots of Credibility Assessmentin Timber Sector”, 2006.

(Paper presented for the International Seminar inTokyo for Tackling Illegal Logging, 2007 --- Responseof the World to the Procurement Policies of Japan,
held in Tokyo, Japan on February 26-27, 2007)(Contact: Lu Wenming, Professor, Chinese Academyof forestry, luwenmingcaf@126.com)