Corporate Social Responsibility and Illegal Logging Activities: The Italian Experience.

Corruption and illegal activities afflict timber harvesting and wood trade in many countries, especially in developing countries with rich forest resources. Wood traders have a key role in fighting against illegalities. Many instruments are available for the enterprises involved in wood trade to promote an ethical behaviour. The paper describes the best practices and initiatives to reduce incentives to illegal acts and to induce law compliance by companies involved in wood trade in a leading world importer of forest products: Italy. The paper is divided into three main sections. After a brief description of the main general aspects connected with illegality and corruption in the forestry sector, an overview of different instruments and initiatives to control illegalities and to promote the use of wood products from legal sources is presented. Instruments to promote legal behaviour in the forestry sector are grouped in three categories: institutional, voluntary, and informational. The results of the implementation of these instruments by the private sector are reported in the following part of the paper, making reference to three approaches adopted by companies in dealing with the illegalities’ problems: pseudo philanthropy, strategic philanthropy, social investment. The future challenges of regulation and market development policies are briefly analysed and discussed in the conclusions.