The role of forests and the timber sector in the international climate change regime has been limited to date despite all the talk of forest carbon offsets and “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (REDD). So far, climate change policy has had some limited positive impact on demand for wood products, but the gains made are well below potential. Meanwhile the impact on supply of wood raw material has been more dramatic and so far largely detrimental. The existing policy framework entirely fails to bring the real potential of the world’s forest sector to bear on the problem of climate change. However it is becoming increasingly clear that prospects not only for successful conclusion of a new international agreement on climate change, but also for that agreement to actually deliver genuine reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, may well hinge on the forest sector. Much depends on the ability of this sector to convince international policy makers of the value of forests not only as standing stores of carbon, but also for the sustainable production of carbon-neutral raw materials.

The international forest products sector generally suffers from an inadequate information base, a situation which partly reflects the failure of the industry and many countries to invest sufficient resources in monitoring timber production and market trends. There are also underlying challenges to monitoring in a sector characterised by global extent, a high degree of fragmentation, a huge diversity of forest types, wood species (numbering in the thousands) and products, and supply chain complexity, and which is impacted by a wide range economic, social and environmental issues.

In such an environment, it is little wonder that the forest products industry has been regarded as risky by the financial sector, irrespective of the concerted measures that have been taken to demonstrate sustainability. There is little certainty with respect to how much wood, and equally important what type and quality, will be available from one year to the next. Large-scale investment and major policy decisions often have to be made on the basis of incomplete or erroneous information, leading to serious misallocation of resources. Lack of information also contributes to highly volatile pricing for many wood products. In an industry that often depends on very long supply lines and lead times, price volatality (on top of already volatile exchange rates) is a major deterrent to importers holding stocks. It's also another reason encouraging buyers, designers and specifiers to switch to alternative materials.

In short, there is an essential and largely unfulfilled need for comprehensive, unbiased and regular access to high quality wood trade statistics. To help overcome this problem, Forest Industries Intelligence (FII) Ltd has developed an on-line system to provide access to the latest wood trade statistics. This comprises a simple intuitive interphase designed to be accessible to users with no prior knowledge of product codes or trade terminology. A number of charts can be easily generated from the data so that key trends are immediately visible.

Using various statistical tools and drawing on over 15 years experience of analysis of wood product trade flows, FII Ltd as far as possible rectifies the errors which are a common feature of raw wood industry data supplied by government authorities and statistical agencies in timber supplying countries. In addition to delivering both volume and value data, through consistent application of standard conversion factors, the on-line system also generates data in Roundwood Equivalent Volume terms to allow comparison between product groups.

At present the data is updated quarterly and covers all EU-27 countries. This data series will soon be extended to China and Brazil. The data covers all wood products identified in Chapter 44 of the international Harmonised System (HS) of product codes, together with all wood furniture product groups identified in Chapter 94 of the HS system. Subject to future funding and level of interest, this data series may be extended to a wider range of countries and products (such as pulp and paper) and may be updated more regularly.

The on-line system is currently being made available FREE OF CHARGE to a restricted number of key contacts with an interest in improving the quality of international wood trade statistics. These contacts are actively encouraged to engage with FII Ltd to regularly assess and scrutinise the trade statistics with the aim of progressively improving the quality both of the data itself and the on-line analytical tools.

Anybody interested in joining this community of like-minded professionals keen to contribute to the sustainable forest products trade by improving access to high-quality forest products statistics should email Rupert Oliver at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please provide your full contact details together with a brief statement of your interest and of how you intend to use the data. I will endeavour to respond to all expressions of interest within 24 hours.