The Ecology of Responsibility: The Institute of Foresters of Australia (IFA) Biennial Conference Tropical Forestry: Innovation and Change in the Asia Pacific Region Concurrent Session 14: Managing Tropical Forest Conservation The Ecology of Responsibility: Lessons from the Responsible Asia Forestry & Trade Partnership (RAFT) Allison Lewin, RAFT Program Manager, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Wednesday 16 August 2017 Pullman Cairns International, Tully 2

The Problem Illegal and destructive forest management, leading to degradation and loss of healthy natural forests in the Asia Pacific region, and associated negative ecological, economic, social and cultural impacts. Almost 40 million hectares of primary and naturally regenerated forests lost in the Asia Pacific region between 1990 and 2010, and this was creating negative ecological, social and economic impacts. Degradation from conventional logging, leading to deforestation.

The Opportunity Strengthen the economic viability of healthy, sustainably managed productions forests, with the trade in responsible wood products as one important means of doing that.

Sustainable Forest & Plantation Management Legal & Transparent Trade Regulatory Frameworks Corporate Practices Community Engagement

Some of our results so far … Worked with more than 80 timber concessions, covering roughly 4 million ha, with 1.3 million ha of those achieving credible, independent, 3rd party certification Assisted more than 50 communities to improve their participation in and benefits from the wood products trade Educated nearly 1,300 wood products traders about changing market requirements and more than 80 wood products manufacturers in responsible sourcing Developed a system to quantify reduction in carbon emissions from logging – revealing reductions of up to 40% To give you a more specific picture of what we do, I will highlight some of the program’s key results over it’s 3 phases (noting that we are still implementing RAFT3, so the results of this 3rd phase are not fully reflected here) … 7 different views One tool or approach among many Most likely to be successful under particular conditions Market-based and demand driven

International Response to Illegal & Destructive Logging in Asia Pacific Shared responsibility FLEG Ministerial (Bali) Illegal logging on the map Growth of certification 2005-2015 IMPLEMENTATION of trade–based approaches (MoUs, timber trade regulations, TLV/AS, FLEGT, certification, etc.) REDD+ Deforestation Free supply chains 1980s/90s Minimal international actions Producer focus “Undocumented Trade” (ITTA, 1994) Early 2000s

Key Results … Stronger policy and market signals for responsible forestry and trade Decrease in illegal trade flows to many markets Increased participation and transparency in forest governance Increased area of production forest under sustainable management (with associated social and ecological outcomes)

Necessary, but not sufficient … IUFRO 2016: Nearly USD 3.5 billion in illegally-sourced roundwood and sawnwood exported from Southeast Asia in 2014 (compared with 521 million in the Congo Basin and 387 million in South America). Value of Indonesia’s sawnwood exports to China between 2010 and 2014 almost doubled, while in the same period its exports towards the EU decreased by 40 percent. Chatham House 2015: In most of the countries assessed, the volume of imports of wood-based products at high risk of illegality declined during the period 2000–13. The three exceptions were China, India and Vietnam, in each of which the volume of illegal imports at least doubled. A number of countries where Chatham House has estimated 50% or more or their timber production to be illegal in 2013 (Indonesia, Lao PDR, PNG) FAO 2016: A number of countries still experiencing net deforestation Source: FAO, 2016 Source: IUFRO, 2016

2017 & Beyond … Gaps/Outstanding Challenges? Regional/domestic markets Smallholders Other sectors Added-value processing Financial viability of forestry Governance Opportunities? Business development Tailored market outreach NDCs SDGs Private investment Landscape level planning 2017 & Beyond …

Although the issue has been high on the international political agenda for many years, political framing of the problem often focused on particular aspects while excluding others. (IUFRO, 2016)

Thank you. www.responsibleasia.org alewin@tnc.org