timber suppliers update with revisions of the Lacey Act of the US ,
which is currently Vietnam’s largest furniture trader.
“Supplementary
articles of the Lacey Act, dated May 2008, provide challenges and also
opportunities for Vietnam to better improve its management of forest,
timber import and processing,” Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Director General
Vietnam Directorate of Forestry said in his opening speech of the
Legality Training Workshop.
By bettering its management, Vietnam
aims to sustain and expand its share of the US furniture market,
Tuan noted, emphasising that, “ Vietnam considers the US furniture
market a high priority”.
In 2009, Vietnam earned 1.2 billion USD from the US furniture market, or 44 percent of its timber export value.
As
new product declarations under the Lacey Act are enforced from
September, a growing number of US-based forest products importers will
seek assurance from their suppliers that products they source have been
legally produced.
This means they must be able to demonstrate
that the timber has been harvested, possessed, transported, sold and
exported without breaking any relevant laws in the country where the
tree was grown, even if it was processed in another country.
Combating
timber trafficking was also a highlight of the workshop, which brought
together representatives from Government, the forestry sector and
suppliers of forest products.
“Cooperating on tackling illegal
logging will help Vietnamese producers, because as demand increases,
Vietnam can gain market access by increasing its supply of legal
timber products,” said Francis Donovan, Mission Director of USAID
Vietnam, which is among the organisers of the event.
He
underscored his country’s commitment to working with Vietnamese
producers in the supply of legal and sustainable products that meet
international market standards.
Tuan affirmed that Vietnam
has cooperated with many countries around the world and made
governmental-level commitments to intensify its forest management to
prevent illegal logging.
He cited the country’s participation in
the ASEAN action plan to adapt to the EU Action Plan for Forest Law
Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT).
“Illegal logging and
timber trade not only undermine conservation, they also lead to reduced
profitability of legal trade, loss of foreign revenue and currency
exchange, uncollected forest-related taxes and depleted forest resources
and services,” said Chen Hin Keong, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring
Network (TRAFFIC) Global Forest Trade Programme Head.
Vietnam
has increased its forest coverage from 34.3 percent in 2000 to 39.6
percent in 2009. It is among the world’s top five in terms of increased
forest coverage and top ten in terms of furniture exports.
As an
exporter of up to 90 percent of its wooden furniture, the country is set
to rake in 3 billion USD from furniture this year.
The workshop
was co-organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
and the WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) with support from
the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Two similar
workshops will be held, in Quy Nhon, the central province of Binh
Dinh, on August 25, and in Ho Chi Minh City on August 27./.
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