The European Forest Institute (EFI) Malaysia’s effort in improving the quality of its timber products via the certification scheme under Malaysian Timber Certification Council is a positive step forward. Source: Bernama
EFI Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Asia program coordinator, Vincent van den Berk, said there were a lot of positive achievements that had not been sufficiently recognised by the European Union (EU).
“The country has also been the source of reliable quality of timber for the
European countries as well as being one of the leaders in tropical forestry in the Asean region,” he said.
Van den Berk said the certification scheme has the potential to demonstrate each consignment of timber was legal and harvested from well-maintained forests.
“The local timber exports should also leverage on other green-conscious consumer markets such as the US, Australia and Japan, which no longer accept illegal timber products,” he said.
On March 3 2013, the EU would be enforcing its EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) strictly, prohibiting the placing of illegally harvested timber and timber products in the market.
European Timber Trade Federation secretary-general, Andre de Boer, said the EUTR would not be a trade barrier if it were to be implemented in all the constitutions of the EU in the same way.
“In fact, it will be a plus for timber if it was produced in a sustainable way because it can compete in an ecological point of view with other building materials.
“If it is legally-produced, it will be the number one material in the world because it is a renewable commodity,” he said.
