Other indicators for legal timber trade of Peru

Bans & quota

Export of forest products “in their natural state” is prohibited in Peru since 1972 except when they originate from nurseries or forest plantations and do not require further processing for final consumption.

CITES and protected species

The following species from Peru is listed on CITES Appendix I:

• Monteromero / Pino blanco (Podocarpus parlatorei). Other names: Manio, Pino del cerro, Pino montano, Pinoholzbaum, White pine, Yellowwood, Brown Pine, Black Pine. A conifer species that cannot ordinarily be traded in international commerce. This tree is more common in Argentina and Bolivia than in Peru. Therefore, it is a species not registered in Peru (MINAM 2011).

The following species from Peru are listed on CITES Appendix II:

• Bigleaf mahogany / Caoba (Swietenia macrophylla); where the trade in logs, sawn wood, veneer sheets and plywood is restricted
• American mahogany / Caoba (Swietenia mahagoni); where the trade in logs, sawn wood and veneer sheets is restricted.
• Brazilian rosewood / Palo de rosa (Aniba rosaeodora); where the trade in logs, sawn wood, veneer sheets, plywood and extracts is restricted. Finished products containing such extracts as ingredients, including fragrances, are not considered to be covered by this annotation.

The following species from Peru are listed on CITES Appendix III:

Spanish cedar / Cedro (Cedrela odorata; Cedrelo angustifolia; Cedrelo fissilis); where the trade in logs, sawn wood and veneer sheets is restricted.

National action on timber legality

Peru is currently not negotiating or having a VPA with the EU.

The intense and above all drastic field work during the last years of OSINFOR (state agency responsible for the supervising the correct implementation of the management of natural resources and wild life) has resulted in numerous observations, fines, and also closures of forest concessions and revoking of harvesting contracts, making concessionaires and private and communal forest managers more careful in the way they plan and implement forest management.

In cooperation with the international Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), operations have been organized among mayor sawmills and processing plants in all forest regions of the country, resulting in confiscations of hundreds of cubic meters of supposedly illegal timber meant for export. In the end of 2015 even timber was confiscated on board of a vessel in the Iquitos port, which was ready to set sail to the United Stated.

Many discussions have followed on the real legality of this timber that officially had all required export documents.  The issue of the discrepancy between legal timber and so-called “legalized timber” kept national and international press busy for months. The result is that Peru internationally got the name as a country with high risk for timber sourcing, which has seriously affected the Peruvian forest sector as can be seen by the stagnant data on timber export volumes since the last years.

Since then a lot of effort is put in by the same government on making the timber traceability more complete and above all more transparent. The 2016 new forest law foresees registration of timber in the forest at the tree level through a unique national code system. This code will accompany the log from the forest until and after processing to guarantee full traceability.

During the Lima COP 20 in December 2014 an important initiative, called “Pacto Nacional por la Madera Legal” (National Pact for Legal Timber), was started. Through this initiative key players as private companies, civil society and different government ministries joined forces to promote the trade and use of legal (verified) timber. The final objective of this pact is to secure that all timber produced for national commercial purposes will be of legal origin.

Since then progress has been made through the elaboration of a “Verification Protocol” (Protocolo de Verificación). This is a tool that assures the objectivity of the minimum standards to adherence to the Pact. Through this protocol some Lima based construction companies realized the importance of procuring timber from known sources. Some signed purchase contracts with larger FSC certified companies.

Another related initiative is “Forest Plan” or “Plan Selva” from the Education Ministry (MINEDU) through the National Education Infrastructure Programme (PRONIED). Through the coordination with different authorities this initiative applied the use of strict criteria in procuring timber of legal sources for the annual construction campaign of school furniture.

In May 2020 the Forest Authority of Peru announced completion of the update of its Control Module of the National Forest and Wildlife Information System (MC-SNIFFS), which is seen as an important step in the development of an on-line system that will record information along the timber production chain, from the forest to the commercialization in the market. This system is estimated to be up and running in 2021 and will contribute to prove the legal origin of Peruvian timber in both domestic and international markets.