Global timber trade pattern: the cards have changed

Since the 1960s, the global timber trade has gradually evolved from a South-North trade to a South-South trade, with an acceleration of the phenomenon in the mid 1990s. Nowadays, Asia consumes more than 70% (in round wood equivalent) of the forest products originating from the tropics. Africa becomes the new frontier for the supplies of wood material for Asian giants, which now source raw wood from all over the world. Since the mid 1990s, the dynamics of the tropical timber trade have been increasingly powered by the demand from large transition countries, especially Brazil, India, and China. The recent shocks of the world finance in 2007 and the quick adaptation of the Asian economies, as well as an unprecedented redeployment of the main markets, illustrate the deep changes which now take place in the global trade and in the developing economies. Traditional North-South axes are challenged, but they are also the roots of competitiveness which are redefined. Our globalised world is now more interconnected than ever, the economic activities throughout the world and the local enterprises which run it are pulled into a global arena of intense competition. Tropical timber trade is of no exception.