NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands is one of the largest world-wide consumers of tropical timber on a per capita basis.

Total imports reached 1,112,000 m3 in 1999. Tropical hardwoods are used in houses and other outdoor construction requiring water-resistant woods. Meranti, Azob and Okoum are most commonly used. 75 percent of imported tropical timber originates from Southeast Asia, mainly Indonesia and Malaysia. 20 Percent is from Cameroon and Gabon in the Congo Basin and 5 percent is from South America, particularly Brazil and Surinam. Meranti and Okoum are both on the IUCN list of threatened species, due to over-exploitation. Azob (Lophira alata) and Okoum (Aucoumea klaineana) are listed as vulnerable, and Meranti (Shorea pauciflora) as endangered.

Although it is not currently large, demand for certified goods is growing and markets are increasingly responding to high profile Dutch NGO campaigns and the development of a government procurement policy which requires legal and sustainable timber. The Dutch Timber Trade Federation (VVNH) has been particularly responsive to this pressure, implementing a responsible purchasing policy for its members and developing the EU Timber Trade Action plan with the UK and Belgian federations.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
07/05/2013	Market share of sustainably produced timber doubled in three years: governent target exceeded This article presents the results of a market study performed by Probos in 2012 on behalf of the Dutch ...	Probos
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01/04/2012	Where Next for Governance Reform? This article for ETFRN News explains the Chatham House Illegal Logging Indicators project and examines ...	Sam Lawson, Chatham House (for ETFRN Newsletter no.53)
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01/03/2011	Dutch Trade and Biodiversity. Biodiversity and Socio-economic Impacts of Dutch Trade in Soya, Palm Oil and Timber This report documents the ecological and socio-economic impacts of the Netherlands in producer countries ...	LEI, Wageningen UR (Kamphuis et al.)
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20/10/2010	Market Share of Certified Wood More than Doubles This paper is the result of a stufy that Probos carried out for the Dutch government in 2009. It shows ...	Probos, for the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
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15/07/2010	Illegal Logging and Related Trade: Indicators of the Global Response - Country Report Cards This document contains the individual report cards for each country covered in the study. ...	Chatham House (Sam Lawson & Larry MacFaul)
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15/07/2010	Chatham House Illegal Logging Indicators Country Report Card - Netherlands ...	Chatham House (Sam Lawson & Larry MacFaul)
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18/01/2010	Summary Report of the Final Judgement of PEFC Austria by the Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) This report is the assessment of PEFC Austria by the Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC), ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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01/03/2009	Buying a sustainable future? Timber procurement policies in Europe and Japan The aim of this publication is to act as a central source of information on the timber procurement policies ...	FERN
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12/02/2009	Keeping the Amazon forests standing: a matter of values The authors of this report claim that paying for the ecological services provided by the Amazon rainforest ...	WWF Netherlands
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01/10/2008	Dutch Procurement Criteria for Timber Criteria for the Dutch timber procurement policy: Principles and criteria for sustainable forest management, ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (Netherlands)
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01/12/2007	Shut the door on illegal merbau! Greenpeace and Milieudefensie investigated the merbau trade in the Netherlands. They examined two consumer ...	Greenpeace and Milieudefensie/Friends of the Earth Netherlands
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01/09/2007	Summary of Public Procurement Policies Summary documents with details of governmental timber procurement policies in a comparitive table format. ...	Proforest
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22/08/2007	Documents concerning the pretest of the Netherlands public procurement 'Equivalence Assessment System' The Netherlands government have developed an Equivalence Assessment System (EAS) in order to assess certification ...	Netherlands Minsitry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
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01/07/2007	Public procurement in the Netherlands: July 2007 Update One page briefing providing an update of the Netherlands public procurement policy development process ...	Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
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30/04/2007	WWF Illegal Logging Government Barometer 2007 (No. IV) The Barometer assesses the efforts of European governments to implement the EU's Action Plan on ...	WWF
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01/04/2007	Partners in Crime: How Dutch timber traders break their promises, trade illegal timber and fuel destruction of the paradise forests Greenpeace report looking at the activities of the Dutch timber trade. ...
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05/10/2006	Public procurement policies for timber in Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK: Options for further harmonisation A powerpoint presentation from the UNECE/FAO policy forum on public procurement during the 64th session ...	Danish Forest and Nature Agency, DEFRA and Dutch Ministry of the Envionment
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01/05/2006	Demand-Side Options: Policies and measures for reducing imports of illegal timber and timber products to consumer countries Looks at the options available to governments of consumer countries to reduce their contribution to illegal ...	Chatham House (Duncan Brack and Jade Saunders)
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01/02/2006	Legal Forest Destruction: The wide gap between legality and sustainability This report aims to send strong signals to governments and timber traders that are taking measures to ...	Milieudefensie, Greenpeace Netherlands, ICCO, IUCN Netherlands, NCIV, WWF
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24/01/2006	EU FLEGT Initiative: Assessment of 'Additional Measures' to Exclude Illegal Timber from EU Markets: Netherlands study Analysis of Dutch legislation of potential relevance to controlling imports of illegal timber; linked ...	Netherlands Government
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01/08/2001	FERN Illegal timber trade statistics Estimates of illegal timber imported by EU member states from Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia and Malays ...	FERN
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
22/02/2012	WWF says European Union is 'failing the forests' The European Union is coming up short in stemming the flow of illegal and unsustainable timber into the ...	Hardwood Floors, US
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15/02/2012	Europe is falling behind on tackling unsustainable timber trade EU countries are not doing enough to stem the flow of illegal and unsustainable timber or regulating ...	ClickGreen
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24/10/2011	The Netherlands bans Malaysian logs The Netherlands' Independent Appeals Board has ruled in favour of global NGO Greenpeace which alleged ...	Free Malaysia Today
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23/10/2011	Malaysian sustainable timber certification fails Dutch standards An independent panel in the Netherlands has found that the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) ...	Mongabay.com
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07/06/2011	TPAC confirms its positive judgement of PEFC International After careful consideration of the objection filed by five Dutch NGOs, TPAC concludes that there are ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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22/10/2010	TPAC revises judgement on MTCS Earlier this year, the Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) judged that the Malaysian certification ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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11/06/2010	TPAC judges that PEFC timber on the Dutch market meets the Dutch Procurement Criteria From 2008 onwards the Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) assessed all relevant procedures ...	TPAC (Timber Procurement Assessment Committee), Netherlands
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03/03/2010	TPAC concludes: MTCS conform, but decision by Minister necessary on risk of forest conversion The Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) judges that the Malaysian certification system ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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18/01/2010	PEFC Austria meets Dutch Procurement Criteria The Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) judges that PEFC Austria meets the Dutch Procurement ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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11/01/2010	World Bank, European governments finance illegal timber exports from Madagascar While Madagascar's current government has drawn sharp criticism from the international community ...	WildMadagascar.org (part of Mongabay.com)
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12/11/2009	PEFC Belgium meets Dutch Procurement Criteria The Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) judges that PEFC Belgium meets the Dutch Procurement ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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08/09/2009	Launch of international stakeholder forum on PEFC International From September 8 until October 5, the TPAC international stakeholder forum is open for discussion of ...	TPAC / SMK
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02/07/2009	PEFC Sweden meets Dutch Procurement Criteria PEFC Sweden meets the Dutch Procurement Criteria, this is the final judgement of the Dutch Timber Procurement ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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29/04/2009	Launch of international stakeholder forum for the Malaysian certification system MTCS From April 29 until May 28, the TPAC stakeholder forum (www.tpac.smk.nl) is open ...	Timber Procurement Assessment Committee, Netherlands
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06/03/2009	Launch international stakeholder forum for the certificates PEFC Sweden and PEFC Belgium On the 2nd of March the stakeholder forum opens for comment on PEFC Sweden and PEFC Belgium (www.tpac.smk.nl). ...	Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee/TPAC (Netherlands)
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12/02/2009	Payments for eco services could save the Amazon Paying for the ecological services provided by the Amazon rainforest could be the key to saving it, reports ...	Mongabay.com
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25/06/2008	Launch international internet forum for timber certificates (Press Release) On the 25th of June, the Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC) launched ...	Dutch Timber Procurement Assessment Committee (TPAC)
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01/11/2007	Moving forward with harmonisation UK - Defra and CPET recently met with Dutch and Danish colleagues in the The Hague to discuss a way forward ...	CPET (UK)
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27/06/2007	Illegal wood found at top timber yards At least four of the Netherlands' biggest timber merchants are importing illegally sourced wood ...	DutchNews.nl (Netherlands)
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14/05/2007	Dutch FSC demand expected to grow The volume of FSC-certified timber imported into the Netherlands will grow in 2008 although 'it ...	Timber Trades Journal (UK)
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30/04/2007	EU governments failing the forests Brussels, Belgium European governments are dragging their heels on a key EU initiative designed to tackle ...	WWF
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20/04/2007	Greenpeace wins appeal against Dutch timber testing institution - Keurhout approved dodgy timber from Malaysia Greenpeace is relieved that laundering illegal timber has become less easy from today. The Board of Appeal ...	Greenpeace (Holland)
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15/12/2006	VVNH to screen legality in timber trade chains Houtkrant news reported that the Dutch Association of Timber Enterprises (VVNH) has been granted EUR240,000 ...	ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report (Japan)
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14/07/2006	NTTA highlights timber procurement policy At a recent seminar in Kuala Lumpur on timber market changes in Europe, Mr. Paul van den Heuvel of the ...	ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report
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11/05/2006	Malaysia, Netherlands to hold working meeting on forestry Malaysia and the Netherlands will hold a working meeting on forestry next Monday, said the Royal Netherlands ...	People's Daily Online
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21/04/2006	Survey: European countries care less about illegal logging issues Gland, Switzerland – A new WWF report ranks 22 European Union governments and Switzerland on their ...	WWF International
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07/04/2006	Greenpeace stops soy ship to protest Amazon damage AMSTERDAM, April 7 (Reuters) - Greenpeace stopped a soybean ship entering Amsterdam's port on Friday ...	Reuters (UK)
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20/03/2006	PNG: Dutch Told To Shun PNG Logs ...	Pacific Magazine (Hawaii)
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27/11/2003	Half of Dutch timber imports 'illegal' Amsterdam - The Dutch timber trade association VVNH has admitted that The Netherlands imports a large ...	Expatica News
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04/06/2003	Friends of the Earth Netherlands: PontMeyer and Jongeneel import suspicious wood Friends of the Earth Netherlands believe that work they have commissioned shows that the Netherlands' ...	illegal-logging.info
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PRESENTATIONS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
10/02/2012	Potential policy measures to promote sustainable commodity chains: a Dutch view	Rob Busink, Department of Nature and Biodiversity, Netherlands
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10/06/2008	Timber procurement policies in Denmark, UK, Netherlands & Belgium: next steps and a comparative study of criteria	Lizet Quaak, Netherlands, Marigold Norman, UK, & Sofie Tind Nielsen, CPET
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25/01/2007	Public procurement policies for wood products and harmonisation process between Netherlands, UK and Denmark	Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment; Proforest (Janneke de Jong; Neil Judd)
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31/01/2006	FLEGT: Additional legal options Netherlands study	Netherlands Ministry of Justice (Nicholas Franssen)
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19/01/2006	Assessment of additional measures to exclude illegal timber from EU markets: Outline of study and country studies	Chatham House (Duncan Brack)
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19/01/2006	Preferably Sustainable: Dutch public procurement policy for timber	Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (Janneke de Jong)
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE
Tuesday 31st January 2006	FLEGT Additional Legislative Options The FLEGT Action Plan identified a need for new or better-enforced national or Community legislation ...
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Thursday 19th January 2006	Illegal Logging Update and Stakeholder Consultation Number 7 The seventh in a regular series of meetings coordinated by Chatham House and funded by DFID. The meeting ...
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LINKS

TITLE	DESCRIPTION	REPORT
Ministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE)	The MCPFE is a political initiative working towards the protection and sustainable management of forests in Europe. It involves 44 European countries, the EC, and cooperates with countries outside of Europe and international organizations that participate as observers.	Broken link
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Netherlands: PROFORIS	Information on the Netherlands Biodiversity Policy Programme 2008-2011, forest expenditure over the last 10 years and detailed description of 1,585 Netherlands Government funded international programmes and projects in the areas of nature conservation, forest management, and biological diversity.	Broken link
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Netherlands: Timber Procurement Assessment Committee	TPAC is the Timber Procurement Assessment Committee that assesses certification systems on behalf of the Dutch procurement policy for timber.	Broken link
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