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Trade & environment Case study: International Timber trade Trade & environment Case study: International Timber trade

Trade & environment Case study: International Timber trade

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Trade & environment Case study: International Timber trade. Trade & environment Case study: International Timber trade. Trends in High Risk timber imports from EU FLEGT countries, China and other tropical Africa. Forest destruction roughly 20% of global GHG emissions. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Trade & environment

Case study: International Timber trade

Trade & environment

Case study: International Timber trade

                                                                                                                                                      

                                                           

 

China - illegal imports and exports

                                                           

                                                                                                                                                      

 

Trends in High Risk timber imports fromEU FLEGT countries, China and other tropical Africa

• Forest destruction roughly 20% of global GHG emissions.

• Illegal logging serious env. and social damage.

• Costing governments an estimated $10 billion every year in lost revenues.

• It is estimated that up to 50 per cent of tropical hardwood imported into Europe is from illegal sources

Sources: EC briefing notes 2007, WWF UK 2005

Initatives to combat illegal timber trade

international agreements

regional agreements: EU- FLEGT – Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade

national legislation

non-legal maesures

Cortesy of

Johannes Enssle

M.Sc. Global Change Management

Debating FLEGT in the Bundestag

WTO

EU FLEGT Action Plan

• EU programme to combat illegal logging and trade by influencing both demand and supply.

• Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with producer countries:1. Governance reforms 2. Measures to regulate and control timber trade3. Measures that verify legality of products

• Measures to increase demand for legal timber: 1. Public procurement policies2. Private sector initiatives, eg Timber Assoc. Codes3. Financing and investment, eg lending criteria4. Awareness raising: Forum C.Africa, China, C.America

FLEGT Action Plan: in more detail

Focuses on 6 broad areas:

1. Support to timber-producing countries

2. Activities to promote trade in legal timber

3. Promoting public procurement policies

4. Support for private sector initiatives

5. Financing and investment

6. Use of existing legislative instruments or adoption of new legislation to support the Plan

• binding bilateral agreement between the EU and a Partner Country

• improving governance: – measures to build capacity, – improve control and monitoring, – enhance transparency – support measures to mitigate any negative impacts on poor people

• Export licenses for the EU based on legality verification

• Secured and improved EU market access

Voluntary Partner Agreements (VPA)

Legality Assurance System (LAS )

• FLEGT licensing requires a Legality Assurance System (LAS) which has 5 components– A definition of legally-produced timber– A system to verify compliance with definitions– A system to trace products from forest to export– A licensing system for exports– Independent monitoring of all components

EU FLEGT licensing scheme: current negotiations

• VPAs currently restricted to: Malaysia, Indonesia, Ghana, Cameroon and Kongo-Brazaville

• But only with Malaysia negotiations entered into an official phase of negotiation

Critiques from NGOs

• FLEGT does not prevent illegal timber going via third countries such as China and ending up in the EU.

• FLEGT does not cover pulp or paper - responsible for a significant proportion of the EU's timber imports.

• WWF is calling for EU-wide legislation to prohibit the importation of illegal timber into the EU, regardless of the country of origin.

(WWF 2005)