Continuing the Call to not use Tropical Timber

1. Why a "Jichitai Campaign"?

Japan is the world's largest importer of tropical timber. Japan purchased massive amounts of tropical timber from the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Malaysian state of Sabah during the 1960s and 1970s, the result of which was serious forest destruction in these areas. Japanese imports of tropical hardwood logs from Sarawak, Malaysia started to increase in about 1980 and the logging of Sarawak's forest's was proceeding at a breakneck pace around 1990. Logging has had a devastating impact on the indigenous peoples of Sarawak whose lives depend greatly on the forests. Deer and wild boar, important sources of protein for the indigenous peoples, virtually disappeared, and the amount of fish caught from the rivers decreased due to pollution. The logging has also brought about a variety of psychological hardships and deleterious social effects for the indigenous people.

In 1987 the indigenous tribes began to oppose the logging of their forests using their own bodies. They attempted to shut out the loggers by blockading the roads, and these actions still continue on and off in many areas of Sarawak to this day even though they have been oppressed by the police and the military. Of course it goes without saying that Japan has a huge responsibility concerning these wretched conditions in Sarawak.

The Japanese non-governmental organization (NGO) Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN) was formed in 1987 to deal with this problem. JATAN, which later formed Sarawak Campaign Committee (SCC), was a voice in Japan in support of Sarawak's indigenous peoples from 1987 to 1990 and protested against Japan's large general trading companies (sogo shosha) which were and still are importing the tropical timber. JATAN soon realized that reducing the consumption of tropical timber was an important issue that had to be dealt with and decided to try a local government campaign (jichitai campaign) since groups in Europe and the United States had had some degree of success with such a campaign.

The Jichitai Campaign is a campaign in which citizens attempt to convince local governments not to use tropical timber in public works and other projects. The reasons for targeting local governments are as follows;

1. Local governments undertake a variety of construction and public works projects, many of which use tropical timber.

2. Local governments have the right to demand that tropical timber not be used in public works projects they order.

3. Local governments starting to not use tropical timber can be expected to have a significant influence on companies as well as on educating the public.

4. Local governments are the most accessible and close-at-hand form of government for the average citizen. While it is very difficult for citizens to meet the Prime Minister or a Diet member, it is not difficult for them to meet with a city mayor or local politician.

5. It is possible for local governments to accept higher costs if the cost of a construction project increases because tropical timber is not used.

6. A campaign can be started anywhere in Japan, and participation by a large number of citizens can be promoted through the campaign process such as the collection of petition signatures and so on.

7. Campaigns are already ongoing in many jurisdictions in Europe and North America so there are examples which can be referred to.

The first target of the campaign was to reduce the consumption of concrete panels ("konpane" in Japanese) made of tropical plywood that are used for forming wet concrete by the Japanese construction industry. Konpane were chosen because it was easy to garner support since they are used only about three times before being discarded and are significant in that they account for about 20% of Japan's consumption of tropical wood. JATAN started the campaign in the summer of 1990, with SCC taking over the reins the following year.

2. Campaign gains strength

In 1990, JATAN called on a number of citizens groups that were already involved in the tropical forest issue to participate in the campaign and some did begin to approach their local governments. By 1991, the campaign was gradually expanding, and there were a series of questions posed in the Japanese parliament (Diet) on reducing Japanese consumption of tropical timber. JATAN and SCC decided to approach the Tokyo Metropolitan government since this is where their offices were located and requested the cooperation of politicians with an interest in environmental issues. Then around 1991 and 1992, the Japanese government and industry started to make moves towards a reduction in the consumption of tropical timber, although it is not known whether this was due to the furor concerning the Earth Summit in Brazil or the effectiveness of our NGO campaigns. In 1991 the Japanese Ministry of Construction announced the results, in a document entitled "The Future Direction of Promoting Rational Use of Plywood Forms for Molding Concrete," of its investigation into policies to promote the efficient and rational utilization of plywood konpane. That same year, the Plywood Manufacturers Association of Japan announced that they would be switching 30% of their raw material needs to coniferous wood in the next 5 years. In February 1992, the Building Contractors Society (BCS), a construction industry umbrella organization consisting of 80 large construction companies, declared the goal of "a 35% or greater reduction, compared to the present, in the consumption of tropical timber kompane within 5 years".

It was under these circumstances that the first local government, the enormous and supposedly slow-moving Tokyo, put forth a policy to reduce the consumption of tropical timber. In October 1991, the Tokyo Metropolitan government announced policies consisting of various measures such as 1) the promotion of building methods which reduce the use of tropical plywood panels and 2) test building using coniferous plywood and composite plywood (mixture of coniferous and tropical wood). After this success, a number of other local governments came out with similar policies.

There was also a new development afoot within the NGO community, that of a national meeting for citizens groups to share information and exchange ideas on the campaign. The first meeting was organized by SCC in May 1991 in Tokyo, with subsequent meetings taking place in Osaka, Shizuoka, Kanazawa and elsewhere. The most recent meeting was hosted by SCC in Tokyo in May 1997 and the focus of the meeting was whether it was possible to adopt the promotion of utilization of domestic Japanese wood into the campaign.

SCC began publishing Jichitai Campaign Tsushin, a Japanese language newsletter on the jichitai campaign, in October 1991. Many citizens and groups with an interest in the campaign subscribed to the newsletter. Jichitai Campaign Tsushin was amalgamated in 1995 with "Sarawak Update", another one of SCC's newsletters.

In 1994 and 1995 around the time of Earth Day, SCC called upon groups to join in a "National Day of Action" to undertake some sort of activities concerning the jichitai campaign. In response to this, groups all over the country organized letter-writing campaigns targeting local governments, meetings with local politicians, public lectures and exhibitions, and various other events. By 1994 a total of about 50 groups and individual citizens were participating in the events.

There have been many successes in areas where the citizens have been painstakingly appealing to their local governments. Osaka is one such example. The Osaka NGO "HUTAN" have been very actively involved in the Jichitai campaign. In 1991, the mayor of San Francisco, one of Osaka's sister cities, sent a letter to the mayor of Osaka requesting the city no longer use tropical timber. In January 1992 the city of Osaka and in February 1992 Osaka Prefecture announced policies for limiting the use of tropical timber. Soon after this, the Osaka groups appealed to all 44 of the cities and towns in Osaka Prefecture and were successful at getting 22 of them to introduce policies to reduce the use of tropical timber (results as of June 1994). In the case of Osaka, it seems to have been effective to first target the important local governments of Osaka city and Osaka Prefecture and then, once they had their policies in place, switch the focus to the other local governments in Osaka Prefecture. Local governments' wishes to "keep up with the Jones'" was leveraged.

The peak years of the campaign were from 1992 to 1994. The interest of the citizens increased, and the movement expanded using a variety of methods such as proposals made to the local governments in many areas around the country by citizens groups. Petitions were gathered, and questionnaires sent to politicians. There was a gradual increase in the number of local governments that adopted policies to reduce tropical timber.

In the autumn of 1996, the "Kansai Tropical Timber Reduction Committee", formed by citizens groups, conducted a survey of cities and prefectures and major cities. While there had been many surveys conducted on local governments within a prefecture, this was the first time one had been done from a country wide perspective. Based on the results of this and previous studies, it was found that about 160 local governments in Japan had adopted some sort of policies or other measures to reduce tropical timber consumption. The policies the local governments implemented were rather varied, ranging from concrete reduction goals, to model projects only, to voluntary reductions in consumption. Some of the more forward-looking local governments include Kanagawa prefecture which aimed to reduce by 70% the use of tropical timber kompane over a three year period from 1992 to 1995 and Osaka city which aimed for a 70% reduction by 1998. Kanagawa prefecture achieved a 70.7% reduction in 1994, while Osaka city reported a 70% reduction by the end of 1997. Both of these reductions were achieved by using coniferous wood plywood as the main substitute.

3. The Surfacing of Trade Issues

A significant issue for the campaign was raised in 1997. In January 1997 the Timber Trade Policy Bureau of the Japanese Forestry Agency conducted a survey on the tropical timber reduction policies of all of the local governments throughout the country. This was not merely a survey, however, but its purpose was rather to pressure local governments not to boycott tropical wood. The Forestry Agency wrote in their letter "it is not desirable for local governments to reduce their use of tropical wood," giving one the impression they were trying to prevent the local governments from adopting such policies.

The Forestry Agency survey was based on Resolution 2 adopted by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) in November of the previous year. Resolution 2 calls for the abolition of barriers to access to the tropical timber market based on the understanding that "the timber trade can play a positive role in providing funds necessary for sustainable forest management," It also encourages member countries to inform local governments, etc., of this view. It is a roundabout and circuitous expression which basically tries to justify the tropical timber trade in order to prevent boycotts of tropical timber from proliferating any further.

The problem of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is also involved. The WTO agreement states that there must be no prejudice between domestic and foreign products, or in other words, domestic and foreign products must in principle be treated in the same manner, meaning that tropical timber must not be discriminated from other foreign or domestic wood. Furthermore, since Japan is a signatory to the Government Procurement Agreement (part of the WTO agreement although participating countries are not obliged to accept it), not only the central Japanese government but also the prefectural and other governments, including those cities that have adopted policies, must obey the agreement.

The Forestry Agency itself, when it met with SCC and other groups, stated "we relayed this particularly strongly since all of Japan's urban and rural prefectures are subject to the WTO agreement". The Forestry Agency indicated they conducted this survey based on the ITTO resolution, however, that was merely a trigger and it was more related to WTO than ITTO. The Forestry Agency has expressed their intention to conduct this survey every year. We have requested that the results of the survey be made public, however, the Forestry Agency has refused, stating "this is not data gathered on the premise of being made public."

4. Fruits of the Campaign

Over the past 10 years citizens around Japan have sprung into action and the campaign has achieved a variety of results, the main ones of which are as follows.

1) Contribute to policy changes in 5% of Japan's local governments

The number one success of the campaign without a doubt has been achieving actual change in the policies of the local governments. The campaign brought about policy changes in at least 160 local governments. Since there are roughly 3300 local governments in Japan, this represents about 5% of the country's local governments, and is a significant feat considering that the citizens' groups had neither money nor extensive organizations, but only a desire to "protect tropical forests."

2) Achieving an actual reduction in the consumption of tropical timber

Among some of the local governments which implemented policy changes mentioned in 1) above, there were some that merely conducted model projects not using tropical timber so it is possible to say this will not contribute to an actual reduction in the consumption of tropical timber. However, if we also include the private sector, it can be said a substantial reduction was achieved. In 1990 virtually all of the plywood produced in Japan was made of tropical timber, while in 1998 37% of the ordinary plywood produced had been switched to coniferous wood. Of course, another reason the Japan Plywood Manufacturers Association announced a 30% reduction in the use of tropical timber, as mentioned above, was because it was forecast that the supply of tropical wood would before long become depleted. However, even though the campaign did not directly target the plywood industry, it is probably safe to say that our appeals to not use tropical timber had some influence. Something else we should take note of are the results announced by the Building Contractors Society, which had a goal of achieving a 35% reduction within 5 years. Although they only achieved a 24.3 % reduction and thus did not meet their target, we got the impression that their position of reducing the consumption of tropical timber is firmly rooted in the companies that make up the organization. The main target of the campaign was of course local governments, however, private companies were the second target and we have been making information available to them and appealing for them to reduce their use. The significant success achieved with the companies can be considered a sort of "by-product" of the main campaign.

3) Publicizing the tropical forest issue

Although difficult to actually see and measure, it is important to know the degree to which people have become aware of issues such as the relationship between the disappearance of tropical forests and the use of tropical timber, the need to reduce consumption of tropical timber, etc. In the early 1990s, newspapers in Japan quite frequently ran articles on tropical forests and reducing the consumption of tropical timber so the campaign did have a certain effect. Even more recently, newspapers have been running articles about how Japan's imports of logs are declining and how tropical wood is a significant factor in tropical forest protection (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, December 8, 1999), indicating there is awareness that tropical timber is an environmental problem. As mentioned above, the fact that the Forestry Agency conducted a survey of local governments concerning reduced consumption of tropical timber leads us to conclude that our campaign has been quite influential. Furthermore, the Forestry Agency using ITTO resolution 2 to ensure access to the tropical timber market and the notifications sent to the local governments indicate that the trade promotion side of the tropical timber debate can no longer ignore the campaign.

4) Develop of a new type of citizens' movement

The Sarawak logging issue is at the same time an issue of environmental destruction and human rights violations of a specific area overseas as well as a global environmental problem. Simultaneous activities targeting local governments all over Japan to solve a problem of this nature was a new type of citizens' movement. In particular, those involved in local governments had an interest in the campaign and even invited SCC staff to give presentations on the campaign at some of their gatherings in 1995 and 1998. 5) Example of the "Environment and Trade" Issue In 1999, the trade liberalization of wood products at the WTO Ministerial Meetings in Seattle was an important topic among forest NGOs. The NGOs asserted "selective procurement with the aim of environmental conservation, etc. by governments and local governments be permitted", and the Jichitai Campaign was offered an example of selective procurement since it promotes just that.

5. Problems with the Campaign

The following issues and problems arose during the campaign.

1) The search for a suitable substitute to tropical timber

A substitute for tropical timber was an issue from the beginning of the campaign. It was just around the time that a plywood manufacturer was starting to produce plywood using coniferous wood so it was easy to imagine that coniferous wood would be the first substitute for tropical timber. However, we realized that this would just amount to shifting the forest destruction to areas that produce coniferous timber and would therefore not be a solution to the problem so there was debate about if we emphasized "not using tropical timber" the companies would have to indicate what they were considering as a substitute. In the end, the campaign proceeded based on the hope that "even if there is no suitable substitute for tropical timber, we must first stress that tropical timber not be used in order to bring forward the issue of tropical forests. A suitable substitute will be developed in the near future since Japanese people are enthusiastic about both research and commerce." Plywood molds made of metal or plastic were already in existence, and around the time the campaign got started kompane made from a variety of materials, including bamboo, wastepaper, and cutoffs and trimmings from domestic Japanese forests, were developed. Unfortunately, however, the experts told us there was no one product that could really compare to kompane made from tropical timber. One other determining factor was the fact that the inexpensive cost of the tropical timber used does not really reflect its true cost, which makes the cost of the substitutes relatively high in comparison. As a substitute material, domestic Japanese timber from the closest possible plantations is the most desirable from the standpoints of environmental protection and resource supply. Recently, wood from thinning and trimming forests near Tokyo has been used experimentally to produce plywood, and we cannot give up hope that a suitable substitute will be developed in the future.

2) Connection with WTO agreements

Around 1994 when we were visiting local governments as part of our campaign activities, some local government officials told us "the Japanese Forestry Agency claims that a boycott of tropical timber by local governments is a violation of the GATT agreement." It was then that we realized the difficult issue of trade was involved in the campaign, but it really came to the forefront with a 1997 Forestry Agency survey. It is still unclear as to what extent the local governments were influenced to withdraw and/or scale down their tropical timber reduction policies due to pressure from the Forestry Agency via its survey and so-called "volunteering of information". In any case, we think it is an unfortunate turn of events.

3) Difficulties with building the next campaign

Beginning around 1995, the activities of the citizens groups participating in the campaign started to wane. Even the "Simultaneous Nationwide Actions", which had brought the groups together with a feeling of comraderie, began to lose their power to sustain the campaign. Of course it is common knowledge that once something reaches its zenith the next direction is downward, so we did not consider the slowing down of the campaign to be a critical problem in itself. If we consider how big the burden was for those who were the backbone of the campaign, it was clear that it could not have continued much longer at that pace. However, it was keenly felt that we would like to begin another campaign, preferably utilizing the experience we had gained and fresh new recruits. One of the objectives of the May 1996 All-Japan Campaigners Meetings was to search for an opportunity to begin such a campaign. SCC has since been considering the matter, however, it has been extremely difficult to build a campaign and as of the present it still has not materialized.

4) Building a resource-conserving society

If wood from other natural forests is used as a substitute for tropical timber it will only result in the destruction of those forests. Using steel, aluminum or other material will still cause environmental destruction somewhere because of the consumption of raw materials and energy. Thus, even if the environmental destruction is shifted from tropical forests to non-tropical forests, this is not a real solution to the problem. Therefore, Japan's present "scrap and build" society, which consumes huge amounts of raw materials and energy, needs to be fundamentally changed in order to build a society which has a low environmental impact. We came to realize this during the course of our campaigning and reconfirmed that this campaign is a warning bell to Japan's mass consumption society. Also, as alluded to in 3) above, it is conceivable that environmental standards will be perceived as non-tariff barriers within the current trend of the promotion of free trade by the international community. We must work to reform such international rules that go against environmental conservation. If we do not strive to switch over from this kind of society to one with a smaller environmental load, we will be unable to build a truly sustainable society only by reducing our consumption of tropical timber.

6. Conclusion

The Japanese "Jichitai Campaign" is a country-wide citizens' campaign that was started with the aim of decreasing Japanese consumption of tropical timber. The result acquired through the campaign is the collective efforts of citizens groups and individuals in all parts of the country, and this holds great significance within the history of Japan's citizens movement. This report was prepared since we felt it was necessary to summarize the first 10 years of the campaign. It is our hope that the experience we have gained over these past 10 years will somehow be useful in the future. We would like the local governments that prepared policies to reduce tropical timber consumption to continue with their policies as they are now and not bend to pressure from the Forestry Agency. They themselves decided not to use tropical timber so that they would not be participants in the destruction of tropical forests, and saying the reason for the reversing their decision is because the circumstances or regulations have changed is not an adequate explanation for NGOs. Even if there are portions of their policies that are incompatible with WTO, the grim reality is that Japan's consumption of tropical timber is destroying tropical forests. We should be focusing on monitoring the WTO, cooperating with domestic Japanese groups that are dealing with Japan's domestic forestry problems (aging work force, etc.), and urging Japan's large general construction companies to reduce or eliminate their use of tropical timber. In other words, NGOs need to diversify their areas of activity.

Finally, we would like to thank all the citizens groups and individuals who responded to our calls and participated in our campaign, the local government officials who worked hard to have tropical timber reduction policies implemented, and the architects, lawyers and other experts who provided valuable advice throughout the campaign.