Posted on December, 04 2015

Paris – WWF and six NGOs and associations, together with leading Chinese forestry companies, announced the "Forest Declaration," a commitment by nine enterprises to completely avoid or eliminate timber products associated with deforestation by 2030. The declaration was made on 3 December during the Enterprise Side Event of the “China Corner” at the UN Climate Conference in Paris.
 
Forests are home to 80% of known terrestrial species and more than 1.6 billion people around the world rely on forests for their livelihood. Forests provide not only a great number of renewable forest products, but also important ecological functions, including preventing soil erosion, regulating the climate and conserving water source. Forests, however, are increasingly threatened. Deforestation and forest degradation are the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions after the combined emissions from all cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships in the world.
 
China is the world's largest importer and market for timber products. Joint action by responsible Chinese companies to promote sustainably produced timber products is essential to inspiring positive change both in the country and curbing deforestation and forest degradation globally.
 
Through the Forest Declaration, WWF and other initiating members are calling for collective action from Chinese enterprises, governments, civil societies and consumers to fight against deforestation and pursue a sustainable agenda, which will not only ensure the welfare of communities, farmers and workers, but also contribute to the global process of coping with climate change and achieving sustainable development goals.
 
Enterprises participating in the declaration commit that in order to achieve the goal of zero “deforestation” timber products by 2030, they will set up action plans to establish transparent, traceable mechanisms to reduce social and environmental risks in their supply chains.
 
“It is critical to have commitments and actions from the business sector to ensure the sustainable use of global forests and to actively tackle global climate change to realize the sustainable development of social and environment,” said Wang Shi, Chairman of the board of Vanke Group, the world’s largest residential home developer by sales revenue and China’s pioneer in green home construction.

The Forest Declaration calls on broader participation from more enterprises to promote the sustainable transformation and to improve corporate social responsibility among China’s forest industry.
 
“We are very delighted to initiate the China forest declaration with China’s most influential organizations and companies in the forest sector, ” said Lo Sze Ping, CEO of WWF-China. “We look forward to more commitments and actions from organizations and companies."
 
Initating members of the “Forest Declaration” (listed in no particular order):
World Wide Fund For Nature-China
SEE
China Urban Reality Association
China National Interior Decoration Association
China National Forest Product Industry Association
China Timber and Wood Products Distribution Association
International Green Economy Association
 
China Vanke Co., Ltd.
Nature Home (China) Co., Ltd.
Power Dekor Group Co., Ltd.
Zhejiang YOYU Bamboo Industry Co., Ltd.
Kingfisher Asia Group Co., Ltd.
Guangdong Yihua Enterprise (Group) Co., Ltd.
Dalian Huade Wood Co., Ltd.
Beijing Sun Group Co., Ltd.
Guangzhou Comgic Children’s Furniture Co., Ltd.
 
For further information, please contact:
Yiyi LU, Communications Officer, WWF China,  yylu@wwfchina.org, +86 10 6511 6244