The East African Community (EAC) has drafted top-quality new standards for timber treatment in the region, in a major leap towards the sustainability of its timber treatment industry.
The standards are out for public comment until 30 July, and the World Trade Organisation has been notified.
The meeting to set the new standards was held at the Uganda National Bureau of Standards over the week starting on Monday 17 April. Delegations consisting of representatives of the standards bureaus in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi attended, along with technical experts from universities, research institutes, and industry.
“The East African wood industry is moving in the right direction.”
The only members of the regional trade bloc not present were the Democratic Republic of Congo, which only recently became a member, and South Sudan.
“East Africa is now viewed as one market, with countries trading across their borders much more easily than before,” explained Prof. Paul Mugabi, Associate Professor of Forestry, Biodiversity and Tourism at Makerere University in Uganda, who chaired the meeting, in an interview with the Dolphin Bay Brief. “We all agree that the causes of premature pole failure cut across the region.
“As East African nations, we have an agreement in principal that the regional standards take precedence over individual national standards. With support from our respective governments, we hope implementation will be possible.
“The East African wood industry is moving in the right direction.”
Previous East African standards existed but were a poor copy of British standards and inappropriate for the East African region, explained Dolphin Bay’s Darren Marillier. Dolphin Bay previously assisted Tanzania in setting its own standards, the most advanced in Africa at that time.
We were invited by the Tanzanian timber treatment industry body TAWOPPA to form part of the country’s five-member delegation to the meeting in Uganda.
Eng. Azizi Msemo, Standards Officer for the Tanzania Bureau of Standards, observed that the process went well and that principles including openness, transparency, impartiality, and consensus were observed. Dolphin Bay made a valuable contribution representing TAWOPPA, he said. “I would like to thank experts from Dolphin Bay to the Tanzania wooden utility poles treatment plants for their participation.”
The new standards tighten the parameters for seasoning before treatment, and the treatment processes. Substantial debate took place on dimension of poles, retention, and moisture content. Differences were resolved in line with the scientific evidence provided by wood scientists.
Eng. Azizi said the final step of the approval process would see the standards published in the EAC Gazette and posted on the EAC web portal. Each partner state would be required to adopt the new standards and withdraw its existing standards.
The national standards bureaus would make copies of the new standards available to the public on demand.
“Now we’ve got workable standards which position timber to remain the material of choice in East Africa, as opposed to the alternatives,” observed Darren. “The big question now is whether the new standards will be properly implemented and policed.
“Nonetheless, establishing them was the essential first step.”
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