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Encouraging good practice
For all its virtues, there is a dark side to free trade. By forcing producers
to keep their prices as low as possible, free trade often encourages the abuse
of renewable resources. Take, for example, the story of Indonesian teak.
European householders have a passion for teak furniture. Teak is beautiful
and durable. It is also expensive - or at least it should be - and to keep their
costs down, many retailers source their furniture from workshops in the Far East
which depend to a significant degree on illegal supplies of Javanese teak. 'It
is not uncommon to find brokers buying garden chairs for US$10 which would cost
three times that much if the teak had been legally harvested,' explains forester
Philippe Guizol.
In 2003, Guizol and Jean Marc Roda, a colleague from the Centre de
coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD),
helped the French retailer Carrefour design a system to ensure that its teak
would in future come from sustainably managed, legally harvested plantations.
Carrefour was reacting to a campaign launched in 2002 by Paris-based Robin des
Bois. The pressure group accused European companies of 'vandalising' Java's teak
forests, and Carrefour was cited as one of offenders. Consumers were urged to
boycott garden furniture made by Carrefour and other retailers. The campaign had
an immediate impact, and Carrefour recognised that it needed to sort out its
supply lines.
Because Perum Perhutani, the state-owned company which manages most of Java's
teak, could no longer supply timber certified as sustainably managed -
certification was withdrawn after the company clashed with local villagers -
Carrefour decided it had to establish its own tracking system. CIFOR helped the
retailer to refine it.
If a tracking system is to work properly, then the 'chain of custody' must not
have any weak links. There is no point in ensuring that the timber is managed
properly in the forest, if logging crews are forced to work in unsafe
conditions, or if the furniture workshops are breaking employment laws. 'What we
have tried to do,' says Guizol, 'is set up a system where everybody will be
dependent on one another. If anyone along the chain fails to observe the
necessary standards, then everybody loses out.' If, however, everyone sticks to
the rules, then they will all share a premium for their product. And Carrefour
will have a product which it can sell to consumers, and which they can buy, with
a clear conscience.
The legal teak harvest in Indonesia amounts to 600,000 cubic metres per year.
The illegal teak harvest probably pushes the figure up to 1.5 million cubic
metres. Guizol believes that one of the reasons why illegal logging is rife is
because local communities have until recently had no incentive to prevent it.
Under the old system operated by Perum Perhutani, once teak had been
clear-felled, villagers were given limited access to the land. They could
briefly work as labourers for the company, planting the next crop of teak, and
they were allowed to plant their own crops on the land for two years. However,
during the next 78 years of the teak rotation, they had neither access to the
land nor any share in the profits.
Discontent and agitation has led Perum Perhutani to review its policies, and it
has now agreed to share some of its profits with local communities. 'I think
this will help to reduce the illegal logging,' says Guizol. 'If people know that
they and their children will get something from the forests, they will have a
much greater incentive to tackle illegal logging.' And only when the illegal
logging ceases is there any chance of the plantations being better managed. At
present the plantations yield on average around 0.6 cubic metres per hectare per
year. If properly managed they would yield at least 10 cubic metres per hectare
per year. 'These plantations have the potential to provide sustainable
livelihoods for hundreds of thousands more people than they do at present,' says
Guizol.
For more information please contact Philippe Guizol at
p.guizol@cgiar.org
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