Opening Remarks of Hideo Namiki
Chairman, Japan Federation of Wood Industry Associations
President, Japan Lumber Inspection and Research Association
International Symposium on Legality Verified Wood 2010
As the Chairman of the Japan Federation of Wood Industry Associations,and member of the Board of Directors of the Japan Lumber Inspection andResearch Association, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you
all and to say a few words about this Symposium.
Before all else, I wish to welcome the many participants who have joined us
in the International Symposium on Legality Verified Wood 2010 to be held
over the two-day period of today and tomorrow. I would like to extend aspecial welcome and to express my gratitude to the presenters, panelists,and numerous participants that have traveled long distances fromIndonesia, Sarawak in Malaysia, China, the European Union, and theUnited States to be with us here. Please allow me to also welcome DirectorGeneral Yoshitsugu Minagawa of the Forestry Agency, to whom we aredeeply indebted for his constant guidance and advice, for making time in
his very busy schedule to attend this Symposium.
This Symposium was organized with a view to eradicating illegal loggingfrom the world. More specifically, it is our earnest hope that thisSymposium will lend fresh impetus to activities against illegal logging by
providing a forum for presenting and discussing the measures being taken
in Japan and the other participating countries, and that these discussions
will contribute to the development of shared awareness and cooperation inthese activities. Four and a half years have passed since Japan’s forestry,
lumber, and wood industries launched their full-fledged activities against
illegal logging in 2006. It was in February 2006 that the Forestry Agency ofJapan issued the Guideline for Verification on Legality and Sustainabilityof Wood and Wood Products. The Guideline was drafted to promotemeasures taken by the Japanese government mandating procurement bygovernment, etc. of legality and sustainability verified wood and wood
products in accordance with the Law on Promoting Green Purchasing.
Responding to these government actions and policies, Japan’s forestry,lumber, and wood industry associations and other related organizations
came together in 2006 to establish industry-wide voluntary mechanismsand arrangements to ensure compliance with the Guideline of the Forestry
Agency with an aim to creating systems for supplying wood and wood
products whose legality and sustainability have been verified and topromoting the use and proliferation of such products. We are also engaged
in introducing and informing other countries of the various systems andactivities that have been undertaken in Japan for legality verification.
Among these activities is the Action Plan formulated by Japan andIndonesia for promoting countermeasures against illegal logging. Based on
this Action Plan, our two countries are cooperating in the development ofwood traceability technologies.
This two-day Symposium is organized around presentations on issues
related to illegal logging with the aim of stimulating an active and frankexchange of views among participants. It is our most earnest hope thatthese discussions will promote activities against illegal logging in countries
throughout the world. In closing, I wish to state that our highest goal is theelimination of illegal logging from the face of the earth, and our ultimate
dream is that symposiums such as this will become completely unnecessary
in the future.
Thank you.