the wood and wood products industry
Central & South America
Regional wood supply pages will be developed further in consultation with TTF members. Quick Links and Related Documents provide contacts and further sources of information within this region.
Brazil remains a major player in the European wood products markets, notably of plywood, sawn lumber and decking. Independent forest certification has formed a significant component of its marketing efforts to broaden market share. Brazil is host the largest area of certified forest of any developing country – around 6.2 million hectares at the end of 2008 – although this still represents only a small proportion of the nation’s vast forest area, estimated at around 540 million hectares.
A significant proportion of Brazil’s certified forests are in softwood plantation forests of Southern Brazil. Brazilian plantations comprise mainly eucalyptus (3.3 million hectares) and pine (1.9 million hectares). The paper sector and softwood plywood sectors have been key drivers of certification of Brazilian plantations.
A WWF Forest and Trade Network has been very active in Brazil for many years. FSC is the only certification system currently fully operational in the Brazilian Amazon where it has certified around 2.7 million hectares. A large proportion of this latter area (1.5 million hectares) comprises the Kayapo indigenous forest reserve for the supply of FSC certified Brazil nuts rather than timber.
Illegal logging is a very significant problem in the Brazilian Amazon. Recent reforms are improving the situation by providing a coherent set of instruments for the verification of legal forest production. Nevertheless, there remain significant obstacles to effective forest law enforcement, notably unresolved land tenure issues, poorly defined division responsibilities between federal and state authorities and lack of effective man-power.
Elsewhere in Latin American, Bolivia was an early mover to FSC certification. With significant donor support in the 1990s, Bolivia completely reformed its regulatory framework for forests with the objective of preparing companies and landowners for FSC certification. FSC certification currently extends to around 2.3 million hectares of the 7 million hectares of natural forests for which harvesting rights have been granted in the country. Only a small quantity of Bolivian wood products finds its way to European markets.
Concerted efforts are now underway to improve forestry practices in Peru and to diversify into a wider range of certified species and products. The area of FSC certified forest in Peru increased from zero in 2005 to 628,000 hectares in December 2008, distributed amongst 8 relatively small forest concessions and indigenous communities (the largest only 120,000 has). There is now a major marketing drive to increase sales of FSC certified Peruvian wood in the European market.
The certification process in Guyana has taken a backward step in recent years after a controversial FSC certificate was withdrawn. Guyana’s has played a role in the EU market in the past mainly as a supplier of Greenheart, a heavy dense timber used for marine defence work.
TTF members click here for more detailed Country Guidance on Chile.
