Forest sustainability and the free trade of forest products: cases from Southeast Asia

This paper introduces the theoretical arguments for and against trade liberalization of forest products considering forest sustainability, and reports on the recent circumstances of three countries in Southeast Asia—the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Trade liberalization raises concerns about the negative effects on forest sustainability, both in log-importing countries that have already cut a large portion of their natural forests by commercial logging and now face a pressing need for reforestation, and in forest product-exporting countries that still have large areas of natural forest and enjoy export competitiveness in forest products.