This document summarizes the EU's policy on forest law enforcement and governance through its FLEGT Action Plan. The plan aims to curb illegal logging by using trade agreements as incentives for partner countries to strengthen governance and adopt legally binding voluntary partnership agreements. It provides technical and financial support to improve partner countries' forest management and monitoring of timber imports to the EU. Some impacts seen so far include billions of dollars saved from illegal logging and tax losses, as well as significant reductions in carbon emissions by protecting forests in key countries like Indonesia. The EU Timber Regulation further requires EU operators to conduct due diligence on timber sources and enable traceability to ensure only legal wood products enter the market.

1. EU Policy on Forest Law
enforcement and governance :
the EU FLEGT Action Plan,
recent developments
ENPI FLEG II Steering Committee
Minsk, 1 October 2013
Mathieu Bousquet
Head of Sector Environment, Energy, Transport,
Regional programmes Neighbourhood East,
DEVCO F3, European Commission

2. Forest – why important ?
1. For livelihoods: woodfuel, bushmeat, medicines,
cultural value
2. For national economies
3. For development: jobs, incomes for national
budget (exports, domestic market, woodfuel
business)
4. For climate: local desertification, erosion, flood
scale…
5. For ecosystem services: biodiversity, water,
climate change

3. Why fighting against illegal logging ?
Illegal logging has many negative impacts
Environmental damage: forest degradation & biodiversity
loss & contribution climate change
Social : on forest-dependent people
Economic : undermines livelihoods, reduces
competitiveness of legitimate forest industry, revenue losses
for Governments
undermines rule of law, fosters corruption

4. Demand from partner countries
Asia : Bali, 2001
Africa : Yaoundé, 2003
St Petersburg : Europe and North Asia, 2005

5. Pressure from
our constituents

6. Setting an EU agenda for FLEG : the
FLEGT Action Plan
-Using the trade component (access to markets) as an
incentive : FLEG FLEGT
- Supporting technically and financially the efforts of our
partners (development & cooperation)
- Anchoring commitments in legally binding treaties : voluntary
partnership agreements (VPA)
-Key principles : respect country sovereignty, promote better
governance, transparency and stakeholder participation

7. FLEGT Action Plan : main objectives

Fight against illegal logging

Recognition that EU is part of the problem, as any
consuming market

Propose a blend of policy measures to tackle the issue :
demand side and supply side

8. FLEGT Action Plan : supply side
1.
Support to timber producing countries. Includes rechnical
and financial support to projects (ENPI FLEG I & II)
2.
Voluntary partnership agreements
3.
Support to national public procurement policies in timber
prudicing countries that favour legal timber
4.
Support to private sector initiatives and CSO initiatives in
partner countries

9. FLEGT licenses (not yet)
System development
Formal negotiations
Entering into negotiations
Preparation, in-country consensus building
Introduction to VPAs
FLEGT VPA partner
countries
September 2013
Laos
Honduras
Vietnam
Guyana
Malaysia
Thailand
Liberia
Indonesia
Cote d'Ivoire
Congo
Cameroon
Ghana
Gabon
C.A.R.
DRC

10. Already some tangible impacts
In Indonesia alone, a Chatham House study estimates that
about 160 million m3 was saved from illegal logging (20002006).
This represents about 7,8 million hectares of forests which
have been saved from serious degradation or destruction, or
slightly more forest than what the FAO estimates is lost
every year world wide, or
equivalent to 2,5 times the area of Belgium.
Efforts against illegal logging in Indonesia and Cameroon
between 2001 and 2006 resulted in :
Avoiding 1,6 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions (about 4% of
current annual global human-induced carbon emissions)
Avoiding tax losses of 4 billion US$

11. FLEGT Action Plan : demand side

National Procurement policies

Private certification schemes and codes of conducts

Transparency & accounting directives on forest investment

Adoption and entry into application of the timber regulation

12. The EU Timber regulation

Adopted in 2010, entered into application 3 March 2013

Focus on EU operators. Their obligations :




Due diligence = “operators” shall use procedures and measures called “due
diligence system” (DDS) to ensure that the timber they place on the market is
not illegal
Prohibition to place illegally harvested timber or timber products on the EU
market
Traceability = “traders” shall be able to identify their suppliers and customers
MS Competent authorities responsible for monitoring and
enforcing this regulation

13. Thank you