The American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) has worked closely with USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and the U.S. Trade Representative's office since 1991 to have this standard incorporated into the KNBC. Now, wood can be used to construct apartments, which comprise approximately 90 percent of the Korean housing market. In anticipation of the amendment, AF&PA conducted a number of seminars to help builders understand the new codes. As a result, several builders and developers are preparing to construct multi-story, multi-family wood houses. In 2004, the United States exported $138 million of wood products to Korea.

For further information, please contact:
Tony Halstead
202-720-1592
tony.halstead@fas.usda.gov

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported that China’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) is nearing completion of a new timber quarantine processing facility, located in the southern province of Fujian in the port of Putian Xiuyu.  The facility will represent China’s first and only combined quarantine and treatment facility for imported logs and will have the capacity to treat logs with bark.  Current Chinese import regulations stipulate that shipments of logs with bark be fumigated with methyl bromide prior to entry and have a phytosanitary certificate. 

This is especially welcome news for Alaskan log exporters, because fumigation in Alaska is not feasible.  Due to the unique terrain and isolated geographic area, the Alaskan log industry operates across numerous archipelagos and roadless areas, precluding transportation of logs to centralized fumigation points.  In addition, for most of the year, the climate is too cold to allow for efficacious fumigations.  For these reasons, it has been a challenge for Alaskan exporters to treat in accordance with Chinese regulations and obtain phytosanitary certificates from APHIS.  A temporary solution had been arranged by APHIS for exporters to transship logs with bark through Japan, where they were fumigated before arriving in China.  In 2004, log exports from the Anchorage, Alaska customs district to China were valued at $2.5 million. 

Officials from AQSIQ reported that they will approve the importation of untreated logs with bark once the timber quarantine processing facility at the Xiuyu Port is completed.  APHIS officials would then issue phytosanitary certificates for untreated logs with bark exported to China. 

For further information, please contact:
Tony Halstead
202-720-1592
tony.halstead@fas.usda.gov

How is Sustainability Determined?

No single government or private entity is responsible for assessing the state of sustainability of U.S. forests. Instead, the commitment by the Federal Government and others to using the Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators (C&I) as a framework for sustainable forest management has resulted from a combination of international and domestic interactions. In 1993, following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 (commonly known as the Rio Earth Summit) the United States became one of the first countries to commit to a national goal of sustainable forest management (Presidential Decision Directive/NSC-16, November 1993). Building on the Forest Principles adopted at the Earth Summit, different groups of countries joined together to discuss and reach consensus on ways to assess national progress toward the sustainable management of forest resources. Nine international C&I processes are now ongoing, involving approximately 150 countries and covering nearly all the world’s forested area. (For information on what nations are included in each of the C&I processes, see Table 9 at http://www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index_tables.jsp). The United States participates in one of these processes — the Montreal Process (See http://www.mpci.org)

What is Sustainable Forest Management?

Sustainable forest management has been described in the United States as the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in such a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, and vitality, and their potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic, and social functions at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.

How is Forest Management Certification Different from Sustainable Forest Management?

The private sector is advancing certification systems to provide a market-based approach to improving forest management. Certification is the process through which some entity evaluates the management practices of a particular forest property and assures markets and consumers that it meets their standards for a well-managed forest. This certification can be awarded by a neutral and independent third party or by a second-party program that enables an organization to endorse the practices of its affiliates or achieve certain management standards as a condition of membership in the organization. Several certification systems operate in the United States and are a mix of for-profit, nonprofit, third-party, and second-party organizations. The area of certified forest lands in the United States is growing. One estimate indicates that almost 17 percent of timber lands in the United States were enrolled one of the major certification programs active in the United States in the spring of 1999 (Moffat 1999), with this total growing to almost 30 percent in the summer of 2002 (Moffat and Cubbage 2002). Large private industrial holdings make up most certified properties. The State forests (such as those in Pennsylvania) are the most predominant group among public sector enrollees, with the small NIPF properties constituting the smallest share.

How is Sustainable Forest Management Measured?

Criteria and indicators to provide a common understanding of what is meant by sustainable forest management. Each is of equal importance. They provide a framework for describing, assessing, and evaluating a country’s progress toward sustainability at the national level and include measures of:

1. Conservation of biological diversity;
2. Maintenance of productive capacity;
3. Maintenance of forest ecosystem health;
4. Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources;
5. Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles;
6. Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socioeconomic benefits to meet the needs of society; and
7. Legal, institutional, and economic frameworks for forest conservation.

The Complexity of Forest Ownership in the Untied States

The United States encompasses about 2.3 billion acres; 749 million of those acres, or 33 percent, are forested. Public entities (Federal, State, county, and municipal governments and government agencies) have jurisdiction over 336 million acres, or 45 percent of forests in the United States; with the other 55 percent being held by private (including tribal) owners. The USDA Forest Service manages the most substantial share of public forest, roughly 44 percent of the total. About 10 million nonindustrial private forest owners (NIPFs) hold title to approximately 46 percent of the Nation’s forest land, a figure that represents 84 percent of all privately owned forests. Furthermore, 90 percent of those non-industrial private forest holdings are 100 acres or less. This condition, which challenged the efforts to improve forest conditions on NIPF lands in the past through education and outreach, will continue to challenge efforts to promote sustainable forest management on these properties now and in the future. Firms involved in the timber industry own about 9 percent of forests in the United States and control 16 percent of all private forests.

Forest Management Objectives

Just as there is a great diversity among the types of owners of forests in the United States, management objectives vary substantially with http://www.fs.fed.us/research/sustain/documents/SustainableForests.pdf

Linked below is the WTO notice that Bolivia provided on July 4, 2005 regarding the importation of wood packaging materials as well as an unofficial English translation of the Bolivian regulation.  The regulation, which covers both imports and exports, adopted May 24, 2005, is to become effective 60 days following July 4, 2005.  The regulation is based on the internationally accepted standard ISPM 15 (https://www.ippc.int/servlet/BinaryDownloaderServlet/16259_ISPM_15_English.pdf?filename=1055161712885_ISPM15_e.pdf&refID=16259) but does vary from that standards somewhat.

Please note the following items that may be of particular concern to U.S. exporters — Chapter III Article 7 (Importation) requires wood packaging materials to be constructed from debarked wood and treated and marked to the ISPM 15 standard.  Please note that there apparently is no requirement that the wood be marked as debarked.

Link to WTO notice:
Bolivia WPM WTO notice 07.04.05.doc

Link to Bolivian regulation on wood packaging material:
Bolivia WPM regulation May 24 2005 English.doc

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) is seeking input for an investigation, requested by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), as to the impacts of granting a waiver of competitive need limits for yellow pine plywood (HTS subheading 4412.19.40) entering from Brazil.  The ITC investigation concerns possible modifications of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).  If entered under GSP, imports of the subject plywood enter duty-free; otherwise, the imports are subject to an 8-percent most-favored-nation rate of duty.  In 2004, imports of the subject Brazilian softwood plywood amounted to $228 million, accounting for 64 percent of imports, up from $8 million (and 23 percent of U.S. imports) in 2000.  The ITC is expected to submit its report to USTR by November 10, 2005, with a public version of the report to be released as soon as possible thereafter.