STATEMENT: China’s Voluntary Guidelines Not Enough to Stop Illegal Timber Trade

In this statement, EIA commends China’s State Forestry Administration’s increased attention to the globally important issue of the illegal timber trade, and its increasingly consultative approach to policy development. However, EIA believes another round of voluntary guidelines of limited scope will undermine China’s stated aims of promoting normal trade in forest products, and in ways that penalise responsible companies and perpetuate negative international perceptions of China’s timber sector. EIA strongly recommends that the proposed voluntary guidelines be replaced with a principled and legally enforceable prohibition on illegal timber trade into and within China.

Read the full EIA statement here.