MEPs last week "reluctantly" endorsed an international agreement on the tropical timber trade. Members were lukewarm about the accord as they think it insufficient to protect tropical rainforests and to allow consumers a choice when buying wood or furniture. MEPs urged the European Commission to swiftly bring forward legislation to ban illegally logged tropical timber from the European market.
An attractive look, reasonable price and its durability all make tropical wood a favourite for manufacturers and customers alike. Some of the most popular are teak bathrooms or garden furniture. Also popular are mahogany cupboards plus varieties of tropical timber which are used in construction for floors.
The problem is that a very large proportion of tropical wood comes from natural forests – not from plantations or sustainable managed forests. Once felled these are lost forever, thereby worsening the fight against global warming.
In addition, in many regions at least just as much timber is logged illegally as legally, and for the customer it is almost impossible to make an ethical choice.
While some labels ensuring the origin of timber from legal and responsible forestry exist (with the one issued by the Forest Stewardship Council being probably the most known), it remains difficult to ensure that the furniture you buy was not made from illegally logged trees.
This is especially true as only a small proportion of wood on the market is labelled.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that less than 8% of the global forest area is eco-labelled and that less than 5% of tropical forests are sustainable, managed.
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