Due Diligence Timber – Thailand

The great majority of Thailand's wood processing industry is based on tree plantations (mainly rubber and acacia). Few of the illegalities associated with supplies from forest arise, particularly if the supplier of logs is a smallholder. Thailand's timber imports tend either to enter end-use within Thailand or to be exported as composites deriving partly from tree plantations. These exports would be as illegal as the imported wood-based raw material from which they are at least partly made. Logging has been prohibited in Thailand's forests since 1989. However, illegal logging is widespread, particularly in the north and north east. The origin of at least some of the timber which Thailand records as imports from neighbouring countries is forest in Thailand. A very small proportion of the timber sector and paper sector products which Thailand exports are destined for the EU - with one exception, wooden furniture. Most of this is likely to derive wholly from either rubberwood or teak plantations.