Is there any difference between legal and certified tropical timber?
Permits have been granted for the felling of legal timber, but this says little about how the forest is managed. In some cases, the forest even disappears completely!
You place a facade or a garden deck. As long as it’s legal tropical wood it’s fine. Wood is wood, right? Is the forest managed sustainably? Is there child labour? Do the locals benefit from it? Will poachers be stopped? Protect the animals?
If the forest is FSC certified, strict rules are applied that guarantee the preservation of biological diversity and ensure that people who live and work in the forest are treated with respect. Legal timber does not provide such guarantees.
Permission has been granted for the felling. That’s all. And that is far too little. The legal is just not good enough.
The following questions/answers about tropical wood come from FSC Netherlands. We have translated the questions into English. https://hierhoutdaarbos.nl/