ITALY

In 2003 Italy imported approximately 630,000 m3 of tropical hardwood sawnwood and about 200,000m3 of tropical hardwood roundwood.

This makes it the largest EU market for tropical hardwood. The Italian wood processing industry produces furniture, doors, windows and flooring and exports a large proportion of their production, which resulted in a positive trade balance until 2001. This has recently changed as a result of competition from cheaper Chinese processors and a depression in Germany, a traditional market for Italian processed timber goods.

As a result of this loss of market, tropical hardwood imports have reduced by around 5 percent in volume and 15 percent in value each year since 2001. This is equivalent to a decline in imports of 25 percent from Cameroon (in volume and value) and log export bans in Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

Neither the Italian Government nor trade associations currently have purchasing policies to exclude illegal timber from their markets.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
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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27/01/2006	EU FLEGT Initiative: Assessment of 'Additional Measures' to Exclude Illegal Timber from EU Markets: Italy study Analysis of Italian legislation of potential relevance to controlling imports of illegal timber; part ...	Barbara Pillon and Davide Pettenella
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01/12/2005	Best Practices for Improving Law Compliance in the Forestry Sector: FAO Forestry Paper 145 This report looks at some of the innovative approaches being used by governments to combat illegal logging. ...	FAO
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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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30/10/2009	The West fuels illegal Myanmar timber trade Bangkok - The United States may have imported $3.8 billion of illegal timber products from China last ...	The China Post
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01/07/2009	Italian beer promotes forestry certification An Italian brewery has become the first to carry the PEFC-label on a beer. ...	TTJ Timber Industry Magazine
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24/03/2009	Liberia: "Blood Timber" for sale! - Stop the practice says Greenpeace Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her government should stop the flow of azobe timber from a country ...	Liberian Times (Liberia)
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24/05/2007	Action in Salerno to defend Congolese forests Salerno, Italy - In Salerno harbour Greenpeace activists yesterday boarded the ship Andreas coming from ...	Greenpeace (Italy)
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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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11/10/2005	Greenpeace boards ship importing rainforest destruction to Italy Press Release: Rome — Today 30 Greenpeace activists boarded a ship carrying rainforest timber at ...	Greenpeace
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11/10/2005	Greenpeace gorillas fight for apes Livorno, Italy - Greenpeace activists dressed up as gorillas boarded a timber transport ship on Tuesday ...	ANSA (Italy)
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08/06/2005	Forest Stewardship Council Cracks Italian Retail Market Rome, Italy - Italian retailers are embracing FSC as an important tool to market forest products from ...	GreenBiz.com
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03/06/2003	Greenpeace intercepts a shipment of conflict timber in Italy Greenpeace activists uncovered a shipment of what they call Liberian conflict timber in the Italian port ...	Greenpeace
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PRESENTATIONS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
31/01/2006	Analysis of national legislation of relevance to excluding illegal timber from EU markets: Italy study	University of Padua (Barbara Pillon)
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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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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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Tuesday 4th November 2003	Illegal Logging & Conflict Timber: Strategies for Italy and Europe Senator Francesco Martone is hosted a meeting in the Italian Senate on the FLEGT Action Plan and how ...
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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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