| Organized by | the Japan Sustainable Forest Management Forum, & the Woodmiles Forum Under the auspices of the Forestry Agency, Japan |
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| Time and Date | 12:45-14:15, September 11, 2015 | ||||||
| Place | Meeting Room 11A Durban, International Convention Centre South Africa |
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| Program |
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Preface
Timber is reproducible and sustainable material. It potentially takes the leading role in the coming sustainable society. That is the rationale for passage of the Act for Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings in 2010 in Japan.
To promote timber utilization, the forestry and timber business sectors should make efforts to work together with green consumers. However, there are a several challenges to address to get on the same side with green consumers- issues of illegal logging and vulnerable forest management and related trade. FSC and PEFC have made great contribution in this field, however they have a bottleneck of cost to be a main stream of the global timber supply chain.
In this context, this paper introduces recent development in Japan including “Guideline for Verification on Legality and Sustainability of Wood and Wood Products”(As we call “Gohowood”, here in after called “the guideline” and the activities of Woodmiles Forum, promoting the locally harvested wood.
■Documents
1 Illegal Logging Issues - Significance and Challenges: Pertinence of Forest Management Governance in Japan & Other Countries
(Outline) In 2006, to tackle illegal logging issue, when the Government of Japan decided to purchase legality verified wood preferentially according to the Green Purchasing Law, the Forestry Agency made the Guideline how to verify timber legality. The system designed in the guideline is, in short, passing legality information by ensuring paper trail in the whole supply chain from harvest origin with guarantee by industry associations After 8 years of implementation, over 11,000 companies have implemented the Guideline. A few problems have been indicated, however, it has the potential to be an efficient and realistic global standard covering complicated supply chains of wood and wood products.
2 Experience of the activities of the Woodmiles Forum in Japan
(Outline) The Woodmiles Forum has promoted locally harvested wood, by methods such as quantifying the environmental impact of transportation process. The distance from harvest origin and end consumer gives significant factor in credibility with lower cost and burden to collect sufficient environmental load information.
■Reference
1 Text of the Act for Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings etc（PDF）
Timber is reproducible and sustainable material. It potentially takes the leading role in the coming sustainable society. That is the rationale for passage of the Act for Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings in 2010 in Japan.
To promote timber utilization, the forestry and timber business sectors should make efforts to work together with green consumers. However, there are a several challenges to address to get on the same side with green consumers- issues of illegal logging and vulnerable forest management and related trade. FSC and PEFC have made great contribution in this field, however they have a bottleneck of cost to be a main stream of the global timber supply chain.
In this context, this paper introduces recent development in Japan including “Guideline for Verification on Legality and Sustainability of Wood and Wood Products”(As we call “Gohowood”, here in after called “the guideline” and the activities of Woodmiles Forum, promoting the locally harvested wood.
■Documents
1 Illegal Logging Issues - Significance and Challenges: Pertinence of Forest Management Governance in Japan & Other Countries
(Outline) In 2006, to tackle illegal logging issue, when the Government of Japan decided to purchase legality verified wood preferentially according to the Green Purchasing Law, the Forestry Agency made the Guideline how to verify timber legality. The system designed in the guideline is, in short, passing legality information by ensuring paper trail in the whole supply chain from harvest origin with guarantee by industry associations After 8 years of implementation, over 11,000 companies have implemented the Guideline. A few problems have been indicated, however, it has the potential to be an efficient and realistic global standard covering complicated supply chains of wood and wood products.
2 Experience of the activities of the Woodmiles Forum in Japan
(Outline) The Woodmiles Forum has promoted locally harvested wood, by methods such as quantifying the environmental impact of transportation process. The distance from harvest origin and end consumer gives significant factor in credibility with lower cost and burden to collect sufficient environmental load information.
■Reference
1 Text of the Act for Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings etc（PDF）
