Despite recent expansion of forest cover in several northern countries, deforestation remains a serious environmental problem on a global scale. What accounts for continued deforestation and its concentration in the global South? The usual suspects include population growth and poverty, the weak regulatory authority of many states in the South, and the conversion of forest resources into patronage or personal wealth by politicians. Timber, by Peter Dauvergne and Jane Lister, offers a broader, global perspective. The authors trace two developments over the last few decades—the globalization of commodity chains and the rise of big-box retail chains—and demonstrate how these developments interact to fuel deforestation, particularly in the global South. They also suggest, however, that the market power of the large retail chains could be used to encourage more sustainable forest management.

Until the 1950s, the timber industry was dominated by vertically integrated timber companies, with markets largely supplied by timber from forests in the same region. With the depletion of low-cost forest resources in the global North, costs of timber production climbed, competitive pressures increased, and firms turned to the global South for less expensive sources of timber (Chapter 3). Initially, northern timber companies exported mostly unprocessed logs from the South and processed them in the North. Since the 1990s, however, timber-processing facilities have proliferated in the global South (Chapter 4). Expansion of processing capacity has been particularly rapid in China since policy reforms in 2001 opened the door to foreign investors (see p. 75 and n. 11). Because it banned logging in natural forests in 1998 (p. 83), China relies heavily on imports to fill the gap between its processing capacity and local supplies. Its mills devour timber from Russia, Indonesia, and even as far afield as Africa and Latin America. Much of the finished product is then exported to consumers in the global North.

Meanwhile, big-box retail firms have emerged as the most important global consumers of timber products (Chapter 2). Big-box firms revolutionized the retail sector by achieving “unprecedented economies of scale and market dominance” (pp. 29–30). The largest retailers—Home Depot, Lowe's, Ikea, and Walmart (p. 34)—enjoy considerable market power in negotiating with producers. Processors in China and elsewhere in the global South are willing to adapt their facilities, often taking on debt to do so, to secure orders from large retailers. The large retailers then press their advantage, requiring cost reductions to renew orders that the processors cannot afford to lose.

Thus, timber commodity chains have become longer and more global in scope, involving more intermediaries in more countries. At the same time, big-box retailers have emerged as powerful intermediaries between producers and consumers. Producers, processors, and retailers compete on price. Given the fragmentation of timber production and processing, competition is intense. Intense competition on price drives the expansion of timber extraction in countries with rich forest resources and low production costs. Cutthroat competition encourages producers to cut corners and processors and retailers to turn a blind eye to destructive or illegal harvesting. Governments in many source countries are either complicit in the looting or unable to halt it.

What can be done? In principle, as Dauvergne and Lister suggest, the big-box retailers could use their market power to encourage sustainable harvesting of timber (Chapter 6). To appeal to consumers concerned about sustainability, and especially in response to targeted protests, several major firms have taken steps in this direction. In 2005, Walmart adopted a plan to promote sustainability through reductions in packaging, reliance on timber from sustainably managed sources, and increased use of recycled wood products (pp. 142–43). Home Depot has developed mechanisms to trace the sources of its wood products; its 2010 wood purchasing policy favors timber from certified forests (pp. 145–47). Ikea has adopted similar policies.

Dauvergne and Lister acknowledge the limitations of these policies and the practical challenges to their implementation and enforcement. The length and complexity of commodity chains makes monitoring very difficult. The widespread practice of combining wood from multiple sources impedes traceability. Firms can delegate monitoring to third parties to certify adherence to sustainable practices. However, the multiplication of timber certification and eco-labeling programs and the rise of green-washing—deceptively marketing something as ecologically-friendly or “green”—undermine the reliability of these options. Furthermore, as Dauvergne and Lister recognize, these measures do not alter “the profit-logic of global commodity chains” (p. 159). Despite their limitations, the authors contend that these initiatives do make a difference.

Ultimately, Dauvergne and Lister believe that sustainable forest use at the global scale requires “better co-regulatory coordination among international state-led mechanisms, civil society advocacy, voluntary standard-setting, and global commodity chain market strategies,” as well as the internalization of environmental and social externalities (p. 160). These solutions seem utopian. The authors recognize some of the dangers—social, economic, and environmental—of relying on the market power of large retailers (p. 163). They fail, however, to explain why or how the prioritization of consumption and low costs could be reversed or global coordination could be achieved and sustained.

A couple of points would have benefited from further development or better framing. For example, Dauvergne and Lister attribute the rapid rise of timber companies in the global South to their lower production costs, increased access to financing and new technology, and more favorable tariffs (p. 87). While the authors discuss low production costs at length, they comment on access to financing and technology only briefly (p. 103). An extended passage on the “hidden costs of groceries” (pp. 123–31) discusses the role of land conversion as a driver of deforestation. Indeed, some readers may be predisposed to believe that land conversion to produce biofuels and food crops is a more important source of deforestation than the changes in timber commodity chains emphasized by Dauvergne and Lister. Yet these dynamics are not fully independent and, consequently, should be considered complementary rather than alternative explanations. The authors explain how timber extraction facilitates land conversion, but they do so briefly and several pages after the section describing how groceries contribute to deforestation (p. 134). It would have been more effective to explain this connection before the section on groceries. Overall, however, the authors present their argument clearly and develop it systematically.

Timber is an accessible and informative book that will appeal to undergraduates as well as those interested in forest policy. Its treatment of transformations in the global economy, especially the rise of China, will appeal to readers with no particular interest in timber. Written for accessibility, the book uses footnotes and a short bibliographic note to direct interested readers to more theoretical sources on commodity chains, corporate and buyer power, globalization, multinational corporations, and emerging economies. Although the analysis also speaks to debates about the relative autonomy of countries in the global South and their prospects for climbing into the ranks of wealthy countries, these themes are not developed explicitly. Likewise, domestic political factors such as administrative capacity and weak rule of law are identified as important background considerations but are not analyzed.