On March 16, the 14th China Wood Protection Conference & the 1st Timber Industry Scientific and Technological Achievement Exchanges and Matchmaking Conference was held in Hunan, China. At the invitation of the organizing committee, Dr. Luo Xinjian, Secretary General of Global Green Supply Chains Initiative (GGSC), participated in the panel meeting themed "Exploring New Materials and Technologies to Promote Sustainable Development of Green Timber Industry".

During the panel meeting, Dr. Luo pointed out that in order to promote the sustainable development of the timber industry, it’s important to address the global challenge that timber enterprises are inadequately compensated for their costs incurred in fulfilling the social and environmental responsibilities. To this end, GGSC, with the support of international organizations and various stakeholders, is committed to creating a global ecology that transforms enterprises’ social and environmental responsibilities into their competitive advantages, thereby igniting the intrinsic motivation of timber enterprises to assume social and environmental responsibilities.

Dr. Luo said that with the support of International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), GGSC is fully committed to building an international network for timber industry information sharing and business connections, known as the Global Timber Index (GTI) platform. The GTI platform has set up focal points in eight countries around the world and more countries will join soon. 

In addition, for the upcoming Earth Day 2024, GGSC, Global Green Supply Chain of Forest Products (Macao) Federation, and the Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Macau will jointly launch a series of activities themed "Sustainable Development of Forest Products Industry to the Campus", in an effort to help young students understand the positive contributions of sustainable forest products industry to the global society, economy and environment, and explore action plans for young students to join in sustainable forestry development.

Dr. Luo also introduced that GGSC is in talks with financial institutions around the world to promote “Green Finance for Green Supply Chain” Initiative.

At last, Dr. Luo introduced the Global Legal and Sustainable Timber Forum 2024 (GLSTF 2024) to be held in Macao on September 11-12 this year, and invited enterprises, associations, universities, research institutions and others to participate, to share experiences, showcase achievements, explore markets and make friends from all over the world. And she believed GLSTF 2024 will bring more cooperation opportunities and outputs to participants.