Who are we? 

We are a group of timber importing companies specialized in tropical timber in the European market. We started An Amazon Initiative to strengthen the link between the market demand in Europe for sustainable and certified timber and the urgent need to safeguard the Amazon rainforest. 

The overall objective of an Amazon Initiative is to highlight the need for more state and federal concessions and FSC certification in the Amazon of Brazil. 

History 

An Amazon Initiative began in early 2021 as an informal group of major European timber importers coming together with a clear message to suppliers, NGO ́s and forest authorities in Brazil that we are interested in. 
 

In July 2021 a letter signed by more than 30 European timber importers was send to Brazilian forest authorities and NGO ́s and An Amazon Initiative gained interest and momentum.  

In November 2021 an online Business Encounter was held with the overall topic “How European Importers can drive more certified area”. The Business Encounter was joined with participants from across the forest and timber sector as well NGO ́s from Europe and Brazil and one conclusion was clear:  
 

An International precompetitive collaboration involving importers, producers and NGO ́s is needed.  

The premise of An Amazon Initiative 

We believe the best way to protect the rainforest has proven to be proper land legislation, high forest management standards and a secure and transparent chain of custody.  

  • The forest management standard of the state and federal concessions in Brazil is close to the one of Forest Stewardship Council® which makes the final step of FSC certification easy to achieve.  

  • We believe in a 30-year harvesting cycle, prelogging inventory and mapping out high conservation values as well as reduced impact logging and extraction, are important elements of a sustainable forest management.  

  • We believe in monitoring of forest management plans, implementation and impact by SEMAS/IBAMA, and when FSC certified verified by independent certification bodies.  

All these efforts and investments makes the forest economically valuable and thus worth protecting from deforestation and illegal logging - maintaining valuable forest for future generations. 

Future initiatives 

Based on the findings from the previous actions An Amazon Initiative will seek to formalize itself and take further initiatives to reach objectives that promotes tropical timber from responsible sources:  

 

  • Support and enhance efforts of operators and NGO ́s who promote responsible domestic timber procurement and responsible forest management in the tropics, including further development of lesser known timber species.  

  • Overcome market barriers for tropical timber, by facilitating the development of LCA ́s on tropical timber to pave the way for Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) on tropical timber.  

  • Co-create and implement solutions which strengthen the position of tropical timber in the future demand for verified legal and responsible origin and meet zero deforestation regulation.  

The initiative benefits from the support of Erik Kauffeldts Fond
 
The Erik Kauffeldts Fond is a Danish private equity fund founded by the previous owner and founder of the North Jutland wood company Keflico A/S. The fund has the majority stake in the company today. The purpose of the fund is to preserve Keflico as a Danish-owned company and to secure and support the company's financial basis. But also, to support with loans or Scholarships for current, future and former employees of Keflico.

Challenges and Perspectives

  • Logwood production in Amazon Legal declining from 28M M3 in 1998 to 8,8M M3 in 2018 corresponding to a total logged area of just 400.000 ha pr year in 2018. (Imaflora, 2020*) A small recovery after 2018 and it is now in the order of 10-11 M m3 per year.  

  • This requires a minimum area of 500.000 hectares harvested under sound management per year in a 30 year cycle which in reality requires at least 15-25 Mha of Forest Concessions. 

  • By late 2022, there was a total of 2,7M ha of sound forest management in the Amazon, being 1,7 million hectares in State and Federal concessions.   

  • Roughly 2M ha where FSC certified. (There is an overlap between certified areas and concessions). Part of the FSC Global Strategy is to double the FSC certified area in the entire tropical region to 50 Mha by 2026.  

  • Brazilian Forest Service released news that they are planning for 4,8 Mio Ha of State and Federal Concessions in 2022, in 2023 primarily in the Amazon region 

  • A realistic potential area for forest concessions in Amazon Legal is estimated to be at least 38M ha - and could be doubled if communities and Indigenous lands and their people are included and involved through FSC certification.  

  • Official data (Prodes) estimates deforestation in the Amazon in the order of 1,16M hectares in 2022 largely driven by beef cattle ranching and industrial agriculture. 

  

To achieve true sustainability in Amazon Legal by 2030 we must 

Increase Forest Concessions under the Forest Brazil code  – from 4,8 Mha to 20 Mha 

Increase FSC certified Forest management from 2 to at least 10 Mha 

In other words – we must beat the “opponent” clearing 1,16 Mha of forest each and every year…. 

  

Numbers Verified by Imaflora March 2023.