Country Risk Profiles

India has around 70 million hectares of forests, which covers 24% of the country. Around 15.7 million hectares are primary forest, 43 million hectares of otherwise naturally regenerated forest, and around 12 million hectares are planted forest. The total forest area is increasing by around 1 million hectares a year. About 85% of the forest area is publicly owned, and 15% privately owned (FAO, 2015). Most of the public forests are administered by the government, and some of them by communities and indigenous groups. India produced almost 50 million m3 of logs in 2014, of which only a small proportion was exported. The export value of primary timber products exceeded USD 80 million (ITTO, 2015). Illegal logging and trade of high-value timber is a major problem in many parts of the country. In 2009. the Ministry of Environment and Forests estimated that 2 million m3 of logs were illegally felled per year. Several legality risks are present in India, relating to legal rights to harvest, taxes and fees, timber harvesting activities, third parties' rights, and trade and transport. As India is one of the world’s largest importers of wood-based products, it is also a major consumer of illegal timber. The volume of illegal imports has increased, and in 2012 almost 20% of timber imports were estimated to be illegal. There has been limited acknowledgement of the problem within the country, and little response from the government (Chatham House, 2014). Companies sourcing timber from India should take care to ensure the risks identified are not present in their supply chains, or have been sufficiently mitigated. VIEW LESS