Progress toward the target is being monitored by Dutch forest and timber sustainability consultancy Probos.
Now the latter has delivered its first interim assessment, with the cooperation of the FSC and PEFC certification schemes, giving market figures for 2012. The results, said BFHI General Secretary Bart De Turck are dramatic:“The report shows that 1,960,100 cubic metres of primary wood products from certified sustainable managed forests round wood equivalent (rwe) were placed on
the Belgian market in 2012.That’s 40.5% of primary wood consumption, which means we’ve already surpassed the target we set in 2011, and six years ahead of schedule.”
The Belgian sawn softwood sector sells the highest percentage of certified sustainable timber, at 48.7% of the total. This is followed by panels with 40.6%.
“In sawn hardwoods, the figure is 12% certified for tropical and 20.5% for temperate species,” said Mr De Turck.“But the overall percentage of tropical hardwood in total Belgian timber consumption is less than 5% and shrinking.”
Of the total of certified material sold in Belgium in 2012, 75% was imported and for FSC material, the figure was 91%. The balance came from native forests.
“That means the greatest opportunity for growing certified market volumes lies in increasing Belgium’s certified forest area,” said Mr De Turck.
