The Asia-Pacific Forestry Week 2019 (APFW 2019) was jointly organized and hosted by the Korea Forest Service (KFS) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The event took place in Songdo ConvensiA Convention Center, Incheon, the Republic of Korea, 17-21 June 2019.
During the event, the GTTN Secretariat held a parallel session on the fourth conference stream: Promoting responsible trade and markets. This was led by EFI EU FLEGT Facility, Forest Trends, ITTO and WRI amongst others. Later, a workshop on the future of the network was also organized.
We concluded that a considerable amount of expertise in modern wood identification technologies does exist in the Asia Pacific region. But the development of the technologies would benefit from more networking and expertise sharing at all levels (within the countries, within AP and globally).
Wood identification technology has a real potential to facilitate enforcement by customs authorities, by police forces, by the judiciary of forest legislation and legal trade.
There is a high need among scientists to be able to share sample material and reference data, which in some countries is seriously hindered by Access and Benefits Sharing (ref. Nagoya Protocol).
