Who is importing forest products from Africa to China? An analysis of implications for initiatives to enhance legality and sustainability
Wenbin Huang (),
Andreas Wilkes (),
Xiufang Sun () and
Anne Terheggen
Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2013, vol. 15, issue 2, 339-354
Abstract:
Global forest product value chains are increasingly subject to regulatory requirements, such as legality and sustainability certification. For African forest products, a shift in the export destinations of forest products towards China, the leading timber product manufacturer, has raised concerns that social and environmental product and process standards are declining. Aggregate drivers of this shift have been documented, yet there has been little enterprise-level analysis of Chinese actors in African timber imports based in China. This paper provides an initial analysis, highlighting implications for existing and emerging regulatory initiatives. Data show that although an increasing number of Chinese private enterprises is engaged in African timber imports, import volumes remain concentrated among a small number of geographically clustered private and state-owned firms. Government-led schemes are beginning to address timber legality concerns. But given China’s growing domestic market for finished wood products, sustainability certification requirements driven by the US and EU will not be sufficient to ensure improved sourcing by Chinese firms. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Keywords: China; Africa; Timber trade; Standards; Certification; Global value chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10668-012-9413-1 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:15:y:2013:i:2:p:339-354
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668
DOI: 10.1007/s10668-012-9413-1
Access Statistics for this article
Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens
More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().