BASELINE STUDY 5, Thailand - Forest Trends

National wood management and tracking systems are relatively systematic, but imports are underregulated:
Thailand already maintains a rather rigorous national management system for the wood industry,
with systematic documentation of importation, transportation, processing and export of wood and wood
products. While these rules and regulations are indeed effective overall in protecting the country’s forests (albeit
with a number of small-scale illegal logging cases), other gaps remain. For example, Thailand does not seek
to regulate the legal status of logs or sawnwood sourced from regional countries with known forest governance
problems, including Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. A wood import ban overland from Myanmar was
executed after the infamous 1997 so-called Salween Scandal to ensure that Thai logs were not being sent
across the Myanmar border and then returned into Thailand, a ruse used to get around the Thai logging ban.
But this has since been overturned and only an official certificate of origin is needed by customs.
Overall low awareness of certified/verified legal wood products: Much of the processed wood industry relies
upon domestic industrial tree plantations, and the construction sector—using imported hardwoods— does not
require any documentation of legal origin or compliance. Only the wood furniture export business seems oriented
towards these concerns, as their customers in Japan, USA, and EU are beginning to demand such timber
legality guarantees.
Thailand’s FIO secured Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for two plantation sites in 2001, although
these were revoked in 2003 (WRM, 2003). FIO regained FSC certification for 4 teak producing forest management
sites in Lampang and Phrae provinces, in 2008, totalling over 11,000 hectares (Smartwood, 2008). In addition,
by 2011 there were 35 Thai wood processing companies holding FSC Chain of Custody certificates.
Lack of data: Data on Thailand’s wood industry remains somewhat opaque. While customs data on imports
and exports published by the Royal Thai Government are easily obtained, the government does not appear to
collect or publish much of the data that would be necessary for a deeper analysis and understanding of the forest
industry, and available information is often out-dated or conflicting. From 2005, RFD and Ministry of Natural
Resources and the Environment (MNRE) have listed the number of illegal logging cases 2 (in Thai). It is difficult to
ascertain the acreage and per annum volumes harvested in the plantation sector, as inventory survey data for
the smallholder sector is not collected. While the government has implemented various programs to subsidize
smallholder tree farms, little monitoring or certification has followed.
Strong civil society operating in the forest sector: Thailand has a well-organized civil society sector that is very
active in forestry, environment and social justice issues. However, many of these groups have remained focused
on community-based programs and have not often participated in national or international forest governance
policies and initiatives, such as certification systems or the promotion of sustainable economic forestry.
The status of the Thai Community Forestry Bill remains in limbo after more than 15 years of negotiations.
2 Available at: http://web2.forest.go.th/stat/; http://web2.forest.go.th/stat/stat52/stat2552.html;
http://www.dnp.go.th/statistics/.
© EU FLEGT Facility, BASELINE STUDY 5, Thailand: Overview of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, July 2011
This Action is funded by the European Union and the governments of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The views expressed herein
can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
www.euflegt.efi.int
9