Despite its scale and seriousness, timber trafficking remains a low priority issue for most countries. Not enough appears to have changed since UNODC (2012) noted that:

…“underdeveloped legal frameworks, weak law enforcement and poor prosecutorial and judicial practices, as well as a lack of understanding of the different factors that drive wildlife and forest offences, have resulted in valuable wildlife and plant resources becoming threatened by, inter alia, illegal logging, illegal trade in timber products… The gaps in domestic and international control regimes, difficulties in identifying illegal commodities and secondary products, along with intricate trafficking routes, have resulted in the inability to effectively curtail the trade." 

While awareness of the risks of timber trafficking is increasing, political will and capacity to address the problem are lacking. Australia, the EU and the U.S. ban the import of illegally harvested timber and wood products, but the effect of this ban is nullified by the countries that do not ban illegal timber, such as some Asian countries.