Goho(=Legal) Wood NAVI

"Goho (legal) Wood" is the first step to protect the Earth. Using the International Seminar as a triggering event, let us build a network of goho wood verification systems.

The theme of this seminar was "Response of the World to the Procurement Policies of Japan."
A year ago, the Japanese government announced its new procurement policies to tackle illegal logging. The new policies in procuring wood and wood products were to prioritize those products of which legality and sustainability are certified. In the seminar, speakers invited from eight nations/regions that supply wood and wood products to Japan explained their legality verification systems, and discussed them with the Executive Committee members. Including voluntarily submitted papers, a total of fifteen verification systems were presented to about 300 members of the audience through a poster session, where lively and passionate exchange of views took place. During the panel discussion, end users of wood and wood products expressed their expectations for the measures to tackle illegal logging.

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to guest speakers who have done a superb job of delivering their presentations, despite the tight itinerary and the demanding nature of the program. We would also like to express our thanks to participants in the poster session and public exhibition, and to the members of the audience who traveled long distances from distant places, some even from overseas, to attend this event.

In order to prove the legality of wood/wood products traded overseas, we need to have a mechanism where the forest information may be delivered to consumers using the chain of business transactions alongside the flow of actual wood supplies. To that effect, the following four elements are absolutely crucial: 1) a clear definition of legality based on the understanding of illegal logging practices; 2) active and voluntary participation by people engaged in the chain of wood trades, from the harvester to the consumer, based on a genuine intention to tackle illegal logging; 3) a scheme for third-party auditing or authorizaiton to ensure the reliability of activities for legality; and 4) disclosure of information including an appropriate complaint handling method for the improvement and upgrading of the system as a whole and the transparency thereof. When all of these four elements are combined, we are able to build a legality verification system satisfactory for final consumers.

The systems presented in the seminar have contributed to the fourth requirement of the above, information disclosure and transparency. The speakers all responded voluntarily to our request for participation and submitted their systems for discussion at a public seminar. Some systems showed aspects that serve as a reference for other systems. Some systems are still being developed, and there are details that require further discussions. As a whole, however, the seminar has produced significant results and serves as an important step in the initiative for Japan.

Using this seminar as a triggering event, we will strive to become the hub for information exchange among the world's different wood legality verification systems through our Goho (Legal)-Wood Navi website. The issue of the legality of wood and wood products is important even for those nations that did not participate in this event. We therefore believe that disclosure of the information we gathered this time will contribute to establishment of wood legality verification systems in those nations.

It is vital to tackle illegal logging to make sure that consumers can recognize legally harvested wood as a resource that is used and reused in an ecologically correct manner. As the first step in conveying that the forest is a sustainable natural resource, it is important to enlighten the public about legal wood.

The seminar will send the message, "let us build a worldwide network of Goho wood."