The city of Rotterdam has committed itself to the European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC) to stimulate the usage of sustainable tropical timber.
Rotterdam is the 3rd Dutch city to officially join the STTC; after Amsterdam and Leeuwarden.
Rotterdam was the host city for the European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition Conference, which was co-organized with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (MIE). The event centered on the STTC’s core view that creating market demand for certified responsibly sourced tropical timber is key to incentivizing sustainable forest management in suppler countries.
During the conference, it became clear that it is not going well with the sustainability of tropical forests; especially the growth of FSC certified areas in the Congo, Cameroon and Gabon is under pressure. This has much to do with the decline in sustainable tropical timber sales, and because of a retracting movement in the use of tropical hardwoods.
The STTC launched in 2013 to focus on creating market demand for certified responsibly sourced tropical timber in Europe. Founded and funded by IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, it now has 80 members and is rising; including timber traders, federations, end-users, specifiers, retailers, local and national government bodies, certification organizations and NGOs. The initial aim is to boost certified timber’s European tropical market share to 50% over 2013 levels by 2020.