Practical Solutions to Combat Illegal Logging - dialogue on best practice for business and civil society

Illegal logging in Indonesia, Brazil, the Congo Basin, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Cambodia
and elsewhere results in social conflict and violence, costs governments billions of dollars in
lost taxes, and causes great harm to forests. A significant amount of this illegally cut wood
enters global trade depressing the prices of wood products and presenting unfair competition
to those companies that respect the law.
Governments have made important commitments to work together to combat the trade in
illegal wood, but those most involved in the forest products industry, the companies, have not
been much involved in these discussions. Some of the world’s largest forest products
companies have, however, been taking significant steps to ensure that their wood supplies are
from responsibly managed and legal sources.
Business leaders can work more closely with scientists, environmentalists, communities and
governments to address the illegal logging challenge. The purpose of this dialogue is to
promote such commitment and share experiences and tools to implement it in a cost
effective way.