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BENIN: GOVERNMENT AGENCY BLAZES TRAIL FOR TRACEABILITYSystem uses barcodes and smartphones to help combat forest crime and boost local economies

FAO-EU FLEGT PROGRAMME SUCCESS STORY

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CTS Tracing wood back to the forest it came from is essential to eliminating illegal

logging. The National Timber Office of Benin (ONAB), with assistance from the FAO-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme, established an innovative traceability system for its teak plantations that helps prevent illegal logging, transport or sale of state timber. ONATRACK uses smartphones to send real-time information from the forest to the office, and uses barcodes to track the timber. This is a first step to demonstrating that timber is produced legally, and will eventually increase market access for the small and medium enterprises that process and export state timber. The system is so successful it is now used in all state plantations in Benin, positioning the country as a traceability leader in West Africa.

Every year ONAB produces roughly 50 000 cubic metres of logs from 14 000 hectares of state plantations. Local businesses buy timber, mainly teak, and process much of it before exporting it internationally.

In 2013 it became harder for businesses to export timber to the European Union (EU), which is one of the largest single importers of wood. That’s when the EU Timber Regulation, designed to minimize the risk of importing illegally harvested timber, became effective.

When developing countries such as Benin can certify that their timber is legally produced, they will have easier access to the EU market. Such certification begins with a solid traceability system such as ONATRACK, which assigns a unique code to each tree so that timber can be traced from the forest where the tree was felled, following it through transport, storage and sometimes as far as the finished product.

WORKED FOR Small and medium enterprises processing state-produced timber

WORKED TO implement an effective traceability system for state-owned teak plantations

WORKED WITH The National Timber Office of Benin (ONAB)

WORKED THANKS TO European Union, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Department for International Development of the United Kingdom.

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FAO-EU FLEGT PROGRAMME SUCCESS STORY

Connecting in the forestAs a first step towards certification, ONAB asked the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme to help it switch from its less reliable, paper-based tracing system to using barcodes.

ONATRACK uses a software programme to generate unique barcodes for trees, their stumps and logs, and uses a smartphone application to scan and record information in the field. Even when workers are deep in the plantations without a phone signal, the application stores the data and updates it automatically in a central database as soon as they are back within range.

To keep costs down, ONAB acquired a barcode printer and trained staff to print and manage labels in-house. They also trained 75 forestry workers to use the application, often using their own smartphones.

Added benefits Although some workers were initially reluctant to adopt the new system, they soon saw it had advantages, such as eliminating labour-intensive paperwork.

“With the old system, I wrote all the information on sheets that were periodically sent to the data processing unit to be entered,” explains ONAB tree marker Justin Hounlome. “All that took a lot of time and delayed payday. With the new system, synchronization means that the data processing unit obtains the information on the same day.”

By providing real-time information, the system makes it difficult to falsify information related to numbering, transporting and marketing state timber. It also provides ONAB with the most current information for making decisions related to sustainably managing their plantations.

“Apart from its original function of establishing the ‘pure traceability’ of our wood products, ONATRACK has enabled us to devise new working procedures directly related to improving the profitability of our plantations,” says Clément Kouchadé, who was Director General of ONAB when the system was developed.

Strong political will The success of the system is due in part to the strong political will within ONAB and the expertise of the Cameroonian company that implemented the project. Involving workers who use the tool in every step of the development process also contributed to its success.

After a trial in southern Benin, ONATRACK is now used to monitor all state plantation harvests, and a delegation of government and private sector representatives from the Ivory Coast visited Benin to learn from the project.

“This tool makes us the leader with regard to traceability in the country, indeed, in West Africa,” Kouchadé says. “The new system has enabled ONAB to improve relations with customers, to get reliable information in real time, and to combat fraud and illegal logging.”

FAO continues to provide support to the project as ONAB trains addi-tional staff to use the system nationwide.

FAO-EU FLEGT ProgrammeThe FAO-EU FLEGT Programme works with many international partners to help implement the European Union’s FLEGT Action Plan to combat illegal logging and associated trade. Since 2008, the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme has supported over 200 projects in 40 countries throughout Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia to improve forest governance and promote the legal timber trade.

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ContactsRobert Simpson

robert.simpson@fao.org

www.fao.org/in-action/eu-fao-flegt-programme/en/

#FLEGT

Related links National Timber Office of Benin (ONAB) onab-benin.netTraceability: a management tool for business and governments

www.fao.org/3/a-i6134e.pdf

FAO-EU FLEGT PROGRAMME SUCCESS STORY

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http://www.fao.org/in-action/eu-fao-flegt-programme/en/http://www.fao.org/in-action/eu-fao-flegt-programme/en/http://www.onab-benin.netwww.fao.org/3/a-i6134e.pdf