Introduction

The importance of the tropical timber trade

At the beginning of the 1990s, global consumption of wood products was running at around 3400 million m3 annually. By the end of the decade, this is expected to reach 4200 million m3 (World Bank 1991). About 55% of the total demand is for fuelwood, primarily in developing countries where in the early 1990s some 500 million people were living in or near forests. The remaining 45% is composed of industrial forest products, two-thirds pulp and one-third timber.

Hardwood products from natural tropical forests (excluding plantations of tropical species) accounted for only around 16% of the worlds timber trade in the early 1990s (Barbier et al. 1994) and only 3% of wood products traded in the UK. However, hardwoods represented 70% of industrial wood exports from tropical countries (tropical forests produced only 7% of the worlds woodpulp).

In the early 1990s timber exports were worth US$10 000 million annually to tropical countries (up from US$600 million annually in the early 1970s). This ranks fifth out of non-oil commodities (twice the value of rubber and three times the value of cocoa). During the early 1990s, between 20 and 30% of the total originated in three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil (production from the Philippines, formerly a top exporter, has declined drastically since the mid-1980s).

The importance of timber to local economies is considerable. At the end of the 1980s the forestry sector in developing countries made an annual contribution of around US$35 000 million to gross domestic product (GDP).