The European Commission has invited public feedback on EU action to tackle illegal logging – the harvesting of wood in contravention of the laws and regulations.

The EU has two key legal acts to fight illegal logging:

• Forest law enforcement, governance and trade regulation (FLEGT) and
• the EU timber regulation (EUTR).

This “fitness check” will according to the Commission examine the “effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value of both regulations in contributing to the fight against illegal logging globally. It will also include the implementing regulations of both instruments as well as the delegated regulation on Monitoring Organisations and will cover all Member States and relevant third countries.”

The evaluation will help assess whether the instruments are fit for purpose or need to be revised. It will also address the coherence between the regulations and “provide a very valuable input for the assessment of potential additional demand side measures.”

The review will cover the whole period since the instruments entered into force, with the focus on the implementation during the last three years, “given that in 2016 evaluations of the EUTR and of the FLEGT Action Plan were published. Furthermore, the FLEGT licensing scheme became operational in 2016.” 

The evaluation findings “will be considered in the assessment of demand-side measures for other commodities associated with deforestation.”

Opportunity for feedback is open until 28 February

Author: FLEGT.org Info