Green Wood Procurement and Sustainable Forest Management Project

--------TNC China’s efforts on Combating Illegal Logging and associated Trade

-- Background

-- Objectives

-- Working partners

-- Project activities

-- Next step

--- Opportunities and challenges

The Nature Conservancy (TNC)

Founded in 1951 and headquartered in Washington DC as a non-profit NGO in biodiversity conservation ;

TNC works in all 50 United States and 32 countries;

protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of river around the world;

TNC has 3,200 employees worldwide;

Using a non-confrontational, science based approach.

TNC China ProgramInvited by Chinese government, started working in NW Yunnan Province in 1998 ;So far over 60 staff and 6 offices in China and working on various conservation relevant issues;Beijing office set up in late 2002 and focused on 5 national level projects including initiated Green Wood Procurement and Sustainable Forest Management Project in late 2004

1. Project Background

-- illegal logging and associated trade became one of most important threats to biodiversity conservation globally;

-- Quickly increased wood importation in China;

-- Rapidly disappeared rare natural forest in major supply counties;

-- Attentions on market driver;

-- China is indispensable part of whole solution.

-- TNC 2015 goal: TNC will work with partners to protect 10% of wide animal and plant habitat globally

2.Project Objectives

Transparent the wood flow imported

in China

Increasing domestic legal and sustainable

wood demand and supply

project objectives

Bilateral and Multi-lateral dialogue

Stakeholder solutions National Policyinfluence

Specifically :

-- Promoting Chinese government work with supplying and final consuming countries to make the timber trade flow more transparent and to reduce or ban suspicious wood importation ( wood without proof of legality )/ bilaterally and regionally;

-- Catalyzing green wood procurement policy be adopted by pu

blic and private sectors in China;

-- Assisting in Improving  legal and sustainable wood supply capacity in China ( support SFM practices and Chinese national forest certification scheme );

3. PartnersGovernmental ag

encies:

State Forestry Administration (SFA),

Chinese General Administration

of Customs , Ministry of Commerce, Asian Pacific Regional Intelligence Liaison Offi

ce (RILO-AP)

Industry Association:

China Timber Circulation Association, Fore

stry Industry Association

Academic research institut

ions

Beijing Forestry University, Chinese Academy of Forest

ry etc.

Communication and cooperation with other NGOs

Fi gure 1 Chi nese Forest ProductI mports Overal l Vol ume

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

million cubic meters RWR

Total Forest Product I mports

26%

13%

7%6%4%4%4%3%

2%

2%

29%

Russi a I ndonesi a USA CanadaMal aysi a Tai wan S. Korea Chi l eNew Zeal and J apan 0thers

Fi gure 3 Chi nese i mport forest productstop three accordi ng the i ncrease rate

from 1997 to 2003

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

million cubic meters RWS

l og l umber pul p

Fi gure 2 Chi nese f orest producti mports top three accordi ng the REW

vol ume i n 2003

46%

18%

24%

12%

pul p paper l og others

4. Project Activities4.1 Researches Finished three primary analysis as baseline in 2004/05

Relevant Chinese Government Authorities

State Council

Ministry ofCommerce

GeneralAdministration

of Customs

Quality Supervision, Inspection, Quarantine

State Forestry Administration

National CITES Office

Department of Foreign Trade

Trade Development

Bureau

Planning and Finance Department

International Cooperation

Dept.

Chinese International Trade Law

Chinese customs law

State law level

Quarantine law of import or export animals and plants in China

Regulation of commodity import and export

Regulation of origin of imported and exported cargo

Customs administrative punishment regulations

Laws and regulations at ministry level

Registration regulation foreign trade companies etc

Implementation of regulation of the quarantine law of import or export animals and plants

Examination and approve regulation of import and export of animals and plants

The import of logs inspection regulations

Permission document for import and export of wild animals and plants

ImplementerMOC

ImplementerGAC

Implementer:AQSIQ

ImplementerCITES Office

Regulation of Origin of goods in Free Trade Zone between China and ASEAN

Their major role and responsibilities

Customs documentation request and declaration process

Customs declaration application form.

Commercial invoice. Packing list. Trade contract. Bill of lading or transport d

ocument. Certificate of origin. Entry permit certification fro

m AQSIQ.

And if import wood products are covered by CITES, importer need to show the export country’s export permission and get import permission documents from China CITES office.

Local customs offices

Customs directly under GCA jurisdiction

Local customs offices

Monitoring Commodities flow before document checks

Electronic dates application for passing customs

Centralized documents check

Accepting and checking written documents and cargos in local customs offices

Pass through process

Monitoring Commodities flow after documents check

Issuing an approvement of foreign exchange payment for importer related prove document(refund the tax)

Checking

Document Checkingand contradistinguish

system

Commodities flow Monitoring and controlling system

Professional management system

Major laws and regulationsExisted laws and regulations related to wood trade in China including:

International trade law.

Regulation of commodity import and export.

Customs law.

Regulation of origin of imported and exported cargo.

Customs administrative punishment regulations.

Quarantine law on import or export of animals and plants.

Implementation of regulation of the quarantine law of import or export

animals and plants.

Examination and approval regulation of import and export of animals and

plants.

The import of logs inspection regulation.

Permission document for import and export of wild animals and plants.

Overall:

- No legal framework to address the illegal logging and trade;

- No in priority;

- cooperation needed with producing countries and final consuming countries;

State Forestry administration

Low awareness

Willing to listen

dialogue with multi-stakeholders

Ongoing Researches: -- Macro and Micro Economic impacts caused by wood impor

t fluctuation in China (Computable General Equilibrium MoComputable General Equilibrium Model)del)

-- Cost and Benefit analysis for adopting green public wood procurement in China

4. Project activities4.2 with government

---- Organized China delegation which including officials and business leaders to attend the TFD Hong Kong meeting in March, 2005;

--- Facilitated Chinese officials to participate the regional discussion process in 2005 and 2006;

-- Set up consultation discussions with officials from Customs and RILO-AP in 2006;

-- Co-sponsored the 3rd China Forest Forum with SFA in September 2006 in Beijing;

--- organized a study trips for 5 high SFA officials to Indonesia and Australia to learn experiences and exchange information of combating illegal logging & trade and SFM practices in Nov. 2006;

---- Assisted SFA in developing national guidelines on regulating Chinese forestry business's harvest, a/reforestation, wood purchase behaviors oversea from the end of 2006;

4. Project activities

4.3 with business

-- Field survey to 6 Chinese Forestry Businesses and

Zhang Jiagang Port in 2005;

-- Set up good relations with Domestic industry

association( Rui Li trip, Beijing industry meeting);

-- Improving Business awareness by co-sponsoring

relevant association’s annual meeting and training in 2005

and 2006;

5. Next step

--- Assisting SFA in conducting an “International Symposium on Illegal Logging Trade Solutions” in 2007 in Beijing;

--- Organizing a delegation consist of officials from SFA/MOC/ RILO-AP to the US to discussion about sustainable forest products trade in 2007.

--- Progress works laid out in the MOU between China and Indonesia, while also assisting SFA to conduct a feasibility analysis on establishing an intra-governmental mutual recognition mechanism for accrediting legally sourced timber products in 2007.

--- Assisting SFA in developing national guidelines on regulating Chinese forestry business's harvest, a/reforestation, wood purchase behaviors oversea ;

--- Catalyzing green wood procurement policy be adopted in private and public sectors ;

--- supporting Chinese national forest certification scheme pilots implementation

6.1 opportunities

Outside:-- Increased stakeholders awareness;-- Improved attitudes of governmental agencies;-- More domestic environmental oriented policies: increasing 5% consume tax to wood flooring board;-- Premier Wen Jiabao’s Promise in 8th EU-China Summit in Beijing on 5 Sept

ember 2005.

Inside:-- illegal logging & trade was identified as one of important threats for TNC cons

ervation objectives

-- TNC China is one of core cooperation partners of SFA on illegal logging and trade issue ;

-- Network based on TNC country programs (Indonesia, China, PNG……) and AP-regional forest program and Forest Trade and Policy Program of TNC Global Forest Partnership (GFP);

6.2 Challenges-- Multi- recognized definition -- Suitable technical tools (Wood tracking, GIS, etc.) in terms of cost and bene

fits -- Lack of motivation and priority ;-- Political risk;-- Complexity - Cross-sector nationally, Bilateral and multilateral

For more information please contact: Ms. Chen XiaoqianThe Nature Conservancy China Program Beijing officeDong Xiao Lou, Zhong Shan Park Beijing 100031, Chinaxqchen@naturechina.orgTel: 86-10-66034445ext 122Fax: 86-10-66034449