Can Legality Verification Rescue Global Forest Governance? Analyzing the Potential of Public and Private Policy Intersection to Ameliorate Forest Challenges in Southeast Asia

background

This review paper looks at the emergence of legality verification of forest timber products and its usefulness in addressing forest degradation. Legality verification, in the context of timber imports as discussed in this paper, is the process of supply chain tracking to ensure that all timber is legally harvested.

research goals and methods

This paper reviews the support of the practice of legality verification from the US, Europe, and supplier countries, which in this case are Indonesia and Malaysia. The paper also analyzes several hypotheses about the long-term impacts of legality verification practices.

conclusions & takeaways

The paper sees legality verification as having potential to transform global timber markets and potentially reduce illegal timber harvesting practices. Additionally, the paper seeks to reorient the scholarly conversation about timber policy to see the actual intersections of business and government that influence forest outcomes.