Certification ‘key’ to better forest management
Laos and Indonesia’s keen efforts to certify their logging industries have paved the way for access to wider markets, better timber prices, and less deforestation and illegal logging. Six timber-processing businesses in Laos have been certified and five million hectares of plantation forest has been certified in Indonesia. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, 129 million hectares of forest has been lost since 1990 worldwide, and from 2010 to 2015 some 3.3 million hectares was cut down each year on average – with illegal logging a cause of deforestation.
