Japanese politicians explore FSC procurement options in the Russian Far East

2 December 2007

Russian timber producers may soon be facing increased demands for FSC certified timber from Japanese buyers. On November 15-18, a delegation of five senior Japanese politicians visited the Primorye region of the Russian Far East, guided by NEPCon’s certification expert Anatoly Lebedev. The purpose of the visit was to look for opportunities to meet the Japanese timber procurement policy whichs bans the import of illegal timber.

The group was chaired by Mr. Minechi Iwanaga, member of the House of Representatives in the Japanese parliament and responsible for the national forest policy; and included Mr. Osamu Iosida, member of governing Liberal-democratic party; and Mr. Taisuke Shimada, Director General of the Forest Policy Planning Division in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

   

The Japanese delegation visited several small-scale, community-based timber businesses operators accused of violating the logging rules, and discussed the underlying causes for illegal and destructive logging in the region with them.

The group also paid a visit to the lumber factory of the company "Les Export", which has declared its commitment to FSC certification and has already embarked on the certification process. Les Export is a rapidly growing logging and hardwood processing company which is active on the domestic as well as the European and Asia-Pacific markets. NEPCon has conducted a pre-assessment of Les Export and the company is now preparing for full FSC certification.

Japan’s green PROCUREMENT policies

The visit formed part of Japan’s increasing efforts to procure legally harvested timber from Russia. Japan’s so-called Green Procurement Law was amended in spring 2006 to exclude the import of timber without specific verification of its legal origin. During the same year, the Japanese government started to look into the options for procuring legal wood from the Russian Far East, in collaboration with the Russian timber export association Dalexportles.

Until now, the Japanese have worked mainly with schemes of timber legality verification in Russia, but the politicians are now considering the value of the FSC certificate as providing a stronger assurance for legal harvesting as well as responsible forest management.

Meanwhile, the local government of the Russian Far Eastern Khabarovsk region has passed a decree which entails promotion of FSC certification as well as programs for the verification of legal timber products.

Weak links in the chain of custody

Apart from procuring legal timber from credible sources in Russia, the Japanese face another challenge: To ensure that the chain of custody is not broken on the timber’s road from Russia to Japan.

Lebedev explains: ”As demonstrated by many reports, the transport of timber through China constitutes the most serious problem for any verification in the timber chain of custody from the Russian Far East. The causes of this problem are complex and involves corruption among Russian inspecting authorities, a huge Chinese demand on raw logs, and the presence of low-cost Chinese labour just outside the border, close by the Russian export checking yards”. He adds: ”The Japanese might consider bypassing this weak link by investing directly into timber processing within this part of Russia”.

The visit was arranged following the 7th meeting of the Asia Forest Partnership in Yokohama, Japan, during which Anatoly Lebedev presented the current problems of forest management and the prospects for FSC certification in the region. Lebedev is the coordinator of NEPCon’s certification services in the Russian Far East. He is also a well-known environmental jornalist specialized within forestry issues.