Forest products—mostly unprocessed round logs—are the largest export industry in SI. As the current rate of harvest is unsustainable, SI is focused on diversifying and value-adding by more local processing of timber. This report presents the outcomes of meetings in 2015 between representatives SI timber industry representatives and the New Zealand Imported Tropical Timber Group (ITTG). The ITTG confirmed that independent third party legality assurance will become a minimum standard in NZ for timber imports and that to access NZ markets SI must demonstrate progress towards assurance in the next 1-2 years. SI doesn’t currently have capacity to carry out third party legality verification, and the ITTG agreed to collaborate with SI to develop this by the end of 2017, including by establishing a timber industry association to which PHAMA could potentially provide initial secretariat support.

Key words: tropical timber, third party legality verification/certification/assurance, sustainable forestry, sustainable forest management, timber legality standard, timber industry association, round logs, sawn timber, timber grading, timber processing, saw doctor

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