Tag Archive for: flegt licences

Evaluation of EU rules on illegal logging: public feedback opportunity

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 public consultation on FLEGT and the EUTR is open until 28 February. Source: Robertus Pudyanto, EU FLEGT Facility

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

South-east Asian countries share progress to tackle illegal logging and its associated trade

The 7th Regional Training Workshop on Timber Legality Assurance took place from 19 to 21 November 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Participants included representatives of nine member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan South Korea, the European Union, international organisations and the ASEAN Secretariat. They discussed their efforts to tackle illegal logging and its associated trade, and measures for trade in legal timber products.

Discussions on country progress on forest law enforcement, governance and trade. Source: EU FLEGT Facility

Delegates shared Indonesia’s experience with VPA implementation, FLEGT licensing and monitoring, and discussed progress in other ASEAN member states and in China, Japan, South Korea and the EU to ensure and document timber legality. Significant advancements since the last Timber Legality Assurance workshop in July 2018 in Thailand became apparent. Discussions also covered multi-stakeholder collaboration among ASEAN member states on forestry, governance and trade issues, and enhancing inter-agency coordination on environmental and forest law enforcement and management in the context of climate change. There was agreement on the need to improve understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing small and micro-economic entities to participate in legal and sustainable supply chains. 

 Participants of the workshop during the opening ceremony. Source: EU FLEGT Facility

Other topics covered were enforcement efforts for timber legality in ASEAN member states and the increasing importance of the legality of imported timber for Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand in particular.

The workshop was co-organised by the EU FLEGT Facility, the ASEAN Secretariat, the Indonesia Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and the Indonesia Multi-stakeholder Forestry Programme Phase 4.

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Author: FLEGT.org Info