How can you know if your dining room table is legal and truly “green?” In the U.S. and many other countries, you can look to China — often called the “woodworking factory of the world.” In 2009, China sent $6.2 billion in wood products to the U.S. But where did those products come from before that, and before that? That’s the big question that companies and governments have been asking and are now starting to answer. And those answers could keep the forests of Asia (and the planet) healthy.

As the U.S. Embassy’s China Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Goldberg said, “It’s all about the supply chain.” That’s how he put it in early September at the “Forests, Markets, Policy & Practice” international conference, co-hosted by TNC in China through USAID’s Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade (RAFT) Program and China’s State Forestry Administration.

With over 360 experts and leaders — drawn from NGOs, research institutions, governments and private businesses on four continents —joining the event, it’s clear that the international forest community has a shared interest in legal and sustainable timber. And, judging by the room full of Chinese wood product manufacturers present at the conference, China could be a major player in pushing the industry toward environmentally friendly practices.

Why is that the case? The answer may be in a number of new and emerging national-level policies. In recent years, robust new pieces of legislation have cracked down on unsustainable and illegally produced timber. These include the 2008 amendments to the U.S. Lacey Act, the European Union’s forthcoming Illegal Timber Regulation and Indonesia’s new Timber Legality Assurance System. Further policies are coming down the pike in countries such as Australia, Japan and China itself.

Those new laws imbued the conference with a real energy. In the past, there has been a lack of accountability throughout the timber industry. Now that businesses are feeling pressure to know exactly where they’re getting their timber, more and more of them are choosing to purchase from sustainable sources and are having a substantial impact on behavior all along the supply chain.

The conference provided a networking opportunity for responsible suppliers, manufacturers and retailers, and informal forum trade partners to connect. Delegates to the RAFT-supported China-Indonesia Technical Expert Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management and Trade met on the side of the event to re-affirm their commitment to continued collaboration to promote legal trade between the 2 countries – both key players in the global timber trade, with considerable ability to influence efforts to reduce CO2 emissions from deforestation and forest degradation worldwide.

Ultimately, market demands will determine how the planet’s remaining forests are managed. That in turn will dictate the extent to which critical values such as keeping carbon out of the atmosphere, and providing habitat and resources for local people and endangered species, are maintained. A recent article in the European Tropical Forest Research Network News demonstrates how supporting improved forest management can have positive conservation outcomes when forest companies understand how they will benefit.

New policies and corporate responses are adding access to major markets and buyers to the long list of benefits from managing forests well. Since 2004, we’ve seen a 30 percent drop in illegal timber imports by major consumer and processing countries. New policies are paving a path toward sustainability and new initiatives — such as RAFT — are also leading to more responsible practices in the factory, and in the forest.

Photo credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Celina Yong/RECOFTC (FSC certified logs, Deramakot Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia); Photo © IWCS (Participants listening attentively at the Forests, Markets, Policy and Practice – China 2010 international conference, Beijing, China); Photo © IWCS (Panelists at the Event discuss trends in major timber markets); Photo © IWCS (Delegates to the RAFT-supported China-Indonesia Technical Expert Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management and Trade have a side meeting with TNC staff during tea break); Photo © Yana Suryadinata (Forest landscape in PT Suka Jaya Makmur, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. With support from RAFT partners TFF and TNC, SJM is on track to achieve FSC certification in 2011).