TEFSO Newsletter Issue No. 26 (Sep. - Dec. 2021) - Thai-EU FLEGT Secretariat Office (TEFSO)

In this issue:

Digitizing Thailand’s Timber Verification
3 Options to Verify Timber on Private Land
Composite Wood Industry: Market Situation, Sustainability and Role in FLEGT VPA with Ping-Hsun Wang
Director-General of Royal Forest Department Surachai A-Cha-La-Bool and the Importance, Achievements and Future of FLEGT VPA

Catch-up FLEGT

Digitizing Thailand’s timber verification

Digitization is the way forward for an efficient timber verification system. The Royal Forest Department (RFD) put digitization as one of their priority work of the moment.
In this issue of Catch-up FLEGT, let’s look at what RFD has achieved so far and their future plan.

RFD Single Window, a central system for timber verification
RFD Single Window, once completed, will be used by RFD staff and external users allowing for registration, making verification appointments, recording assessments and issuing documents to be done digitally. The system will include all the services of RFD; timber certification, certification for timber export, mill permit, transport permit and many more. One system, “e-transport permit”, is in operation for the time being. Other functions are in the development or testing phase.

Mobile application for field verification
Under the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme funded project “Technological Solutions for Harmonizing Existing Systems to Enhance Traceability of Timber in Thailand”, RFD with the technical assistance of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), has developed a mobile application for use by RFD staff to verify timber at the field for issuing timber certificate (18/1) and certificate for exporting timber (18/2). The application will allow scheduling verification appointments and recording data from the inspection to be made digitally in the near real-time speed. The application is still in the testing phase. More information

Future plan
Under the same project mentioned above, AIT conducted a feasibility study and identified appropriate technological solutions for timber traceability as recommendations for future development as follows:

Mobile application as the main digital tools
Barcode and QR code as a tool to store data
Algorithm system for reconciling supply chain data
AI image recognition to verify timber

More information

This year, RFD signed an MOU with AIT to continue their collaboration to digitize the Thai timber verification system.

Law Simplified

3 options to certify timber on private land

As timber on private land is now unregulated, a frequently asked question that popped up time to time is, what are the available options to certify timber legality? Have the same question? Watch this video and learn of the 3 options you can do to certify your timber.

Timber Insider

Composite wood is the top wood product of Thailand. As the leading producer in the world, Thailand amasses more than four trillion Baht annually from export and domestic consumption. The success of composite wood has greatly benefitted the forest economy in Thailand as a whole because the industry uses locally grown trees such as Rubberwood and Eucalyptus.

In this issue of Timber Insider, Ping-Hsun Wang, President of the Composite Wood Industry Group sat down with us to discuss legality control and sustainability, current market situation, future trends, and the industry’s role in FLEGT VPA process.

Composite wood industry group commitment to legality and sustainability
‘Our industry always emphasizes legality and sustainability’ Legality management varies across products due to the production process. For instance, the management of MDF and Plywood, which uses unprocessed wood, will differ from Particleboard which uses post-processed waste wood. When buying tree parts for MDF and Plywood, factories usually buy from trusted sources, whether suppliers, lumber yards, or contracted farmer groups. For the first-time seller, factories will do a plantation visit before purchasing. Particleboard is more convenient because all the checks and documentation have been done and transferred from primary processing mills. Today, self-declaration has become one of the main documents to prove the legality of timber origin.

In terms of sustainability, the industry has always been part of FSC and PEFC schemes because they believe in the principle of replanting harvested trees as well as the appeals of the certificate to global partners and consumers.

Composite Wood Industry Group and FLEGT VPA process
The opportunity to drive the competitiveness and increase acceptance of Thai timber products in the international market is their main motivation in joining FLEGT VPA. FLEGT VPA’s goal in regulatory reform also aligns with the group. Ping-Hsun Wang is pleased with one reform that has been achieved, the deregulation of trees on private land, which has greatly benefited the local timber industry and decreased their reliance on exported timber.

Current market situation and future trends
Amidst many recent crises, the US-China trade war and the Covid pandemic, sales and production of composite wood is still going strong, according to Ping-Hsun Wang. When asked about how he sees the future, he answered with optimism ‘I am confident that our industry will continue to grow, besides from a strong production and trade, we never stop improving our products. The industry always adopts innovations, for example, new products like pliable MDF and humidity-resistant Particleboard are now being produced’

Before leaving, he added that The Composite Wood Industry Group affirms their readiness for the FLEGT VPA implementation and their willingness to cooperate with the government. ‘As other countries in the region like Indonesia, which already operates a FLEGT License and Vietnam, which has signed the agreement, Thailand should sign the FLEGT VPA as soon as possible to secure our competitiveness. We are ready to conclude the negotiation as many careful deliberations and deliberations have already been made’

Perspective

Mr. Surachai A-Cha-La-Bool, Director-General of the Royal Forest Department discussed the benefits of FLEGT VPA, achievements and
the department plan to advance the process.

Article

TEFSO Newsletter Issue No. 26 (Sep. – Dec. 2021)

Article

TEFSO Newsletter Issue No. 26 (Sep. – Dec. 2021)

You might also like

TEFSO Newsletter Issue No. 29 (Oct – Dec 2022)

TEFSO Newsletter Issue No. 28 (Jun-Sep 2022)

TEFSO Newsletter Issue No. 27 (Jan – May 2022)