Progress and perspective of the ITTO project,“Promoting and creating market demand for certified tropical woodand verified legal tropical wood”【Background / Objective】
As one of the measures for the conservation of forests, the area of certified forests isfollowing an increasing trend on a global basis1. However, the area of certified forests
in tropical countries is growing at a sluggish pace2, and one of the causes that can becited for this is the mismatch between the volume of demand in the countries
consuming certified wood and that of supply in those producing it. It can be consideredthat another cause is that there is not much information put in good order andtransmitted to the targeted dealers, though various pieces of such information aretransmitted through diverse channels.
In this project, our objective is to organize various pieces of widely spread
information in relation to the verified / certified wood, whether positive or negative,
and transmit it mainly to the wood dealers and users in Japan to spur more demand forsuch wood.
【Efforts】
Efforts were made for the project for 2 years. In the first year, the demand forverified / certified wood is to be spurred in wide areas by an awareness survey on thepart of domestic enterprises, investigation of the influence on the environment / society
in producing districts, creation of tools for spreading activities and organization ofworkshops for domestic enterprises. In the following year, an information center
mainly on the web is to be established to transmit practical information in relation tothe procurement and supply of such wood to the various parties involved in thehandling of wood and wood products, both domestic and abroad. In addition, with aview to focusing on the enterprises for which it is possible to procure or supply suchwood and developing a business model for the transaction of such wood, morepractical support is to be provided to each of the procurers and producers.
【Past Achievements】
A hearing survey was conducted, targeted at 33 domestic enterprises including
1

Forests of about 290 million ha, accounting for 7.5% of the world total in area, are certified by the forest certification
organizations.
2For example, in Indonesia and Malaysia the certified forests with an area of 5,770 thousand ha account for only 2.7% of the totalof these two countries.

trading companies, dealers / wholesalers / manufacturers of building materials, housebuilders, office furniture makers, paper manufacturers and so forth, as well as 3organizations related to the wood industry. With regard to the Amended G Law, 31
companies (96%) are aware of it, though the degree of understanding differs among
them. In addition, 18 companies (55%) have established a system capable of issuing acertificate of verified wood under the organization certification system. 9 companies(27%) have obtained CoC certification under the forest certification system. However,there is only 1 instance of wood / building materials in which the chain is continuous,and the label is not affixed to the finished product. On the other hand, actually recordedtransaction of the wood involving interviewed companies, to which the certificate of
the verified wood is attached, are very few, and there were only a few cases in whichsuch certificate was requested by the customer3.
From the above, it is apparent that the system is not functioning sufficiently, and isfeared to lose substance as the demand is not satisfactory from the government / publicinstitutions as buyers, though the system of procedure for the certification of verified
wood has been almost established.
【Future tasks / perspective】
In the future, the demand for verified / certified wood is to be spurred by the propertransmission of practical information to the wood dealers through this project. At thesame time, an active approach is to be made to the government / public institutions. In
addition, hearing and focusing of enterprises in producing countries for which it ispossible to supply verified / certified wood are to be conducted to promote theexchange of information with the procurers through the information center.
Furthermore, efforts are to be aimed at the realization of the good business for verified/ certified wood, including the target wood products in small lots produced from thecommunity forests in the producing countries, without adhering to the existing supplychain.

3For reference, according to the aggregation for the period of October 2006 ~ March 2007, released by the Japan Wood Import
Association, the transactions to which the verified wood certificate was attached accounted for 28.1% of all.