Jun 21, 2012

Sustainable wood imports are growing steadily

Dutch timber companies are importing more and more sustainably produced timber. Last year, 77 percent came from responsibly managed forests and had a FSC or PEFC forest management system quality mark. This is reported by the trade association VVNH after research among its members. A total of 2.5 million cubic meters of wood was imported last year, of which 77 percent was demonstrably produced sustainably. In 2010 this was still 71 percent, so we can speak of a steady increase. The share of demonstrably sustainably produced increased in all product groups: hardwood went from 31 to 36 percent, softwood from 88 to 90 percent and sheet material from 64 to 73 percent. VVNH members account for approximately 70 percent of total imports. The organization is proud of its members and indicates that achieving the target of 85 percent demonstrably legal timber imports in 2015 is still within reach. However, this does not happen automatically and so the VVNH continues to focus on close cooperation with chain parties, environmental organizations, the government and quality mark holders. The idea is to remove obstacles to the import and use of responsibly produced wood and, according to the VVNH, this requires the efforts of everyone involved. Source: HoutWorld. Also read our blog post: Sustainable entrepreneurship with FSC .