In Lamphun province near Chiang Mai in northern Thailand a 20-year-old wooden house is being demolished. The workers are dismantling the house piece by piece, rescuing all teak wood. Currently there is a booming domestic market for reclaimed timber in Thailand. It is increasingly contributing to the local economy and has become an important source of livelihood for household businesses in the wood sector.
Reclaimed timber is contributing to Thailand’s local economy and becoming an important livelihoods source. Timber from old houses that have come to the end of their lifecycle are being bought by traders and turned into a thriving business.
The reclaimed timber supply chain started more than 10 years ago but was overlooked and unrecognized. Since a range of regulatory obstacles were removed, bureaucratic processes are being simplified and will contribute to a decrease in corruption. In turn, the earning potential for the Small and micro Economic Entities (SmEs) in Thailand that trade in this timber will have a significant boost.
The recognition of reclaimed timber as legal source of timber is the result of efforts to raise awareness among policy makers engaged in the formal Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) process between the Government of Thailand and the EU.
Since 2016, the European Forest Institute (EFI) has been supporting wood-based micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in four Mekong countries to operate legally and sustainably. Under its Forest Smallholders Project, EFI has been testing solutions to MSMEs’ key challenges in pilot projects. Lessons learnt from these pilots are documented and disseminated nationally, regionally and internationally. Through its support to MSMEs, the Project promotes gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the forest sector.
This website has been produced with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of the authors and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of funding organisations.
Agus Djailani, European Forest Institute