WWF, Greenpeace, and the Forests and the European Union Resource Network (FERN) drew up the model legislation as a response to the European Commission?s Action Plan to combat illegal logging and its related trade (FLEGT), whose first package of measures will be discussed by EU Agriculture Ministers on 21 December 2004.
?Our draft Regulation is intended to press the EU to take swift action to stop the ongoing tragedy of forest destruction, which lays waste to vast areas of forest and destroys the livelihoods of millions who depend on them. The EU is clearly implicated in the trade,? said S?bastien Risso of Greenpeace.
The NGO-drafted Regulation recognizes illegal logging and its related trade as an environmental crime, and allows for sanctions in the event of abuse of documents certifying the wood?s legality (eg, no import notification, false declaration, forged documents). It also proposes that sustainability criteria be developed in cooperation with timber-producing countries and progressively integrated into laws to reassure the consumer that timber is both legal and from a sustainably managed forest.
This builds on the Commission?s current proposal, presented in July 2004, which aims to implement a credible chain of custody to ensure the legality of timber imports from those countries that choose to sign partnership agreements with the EU. The European Commission and European Parliament have each recognized that illegal timber imports from countries without partnership agreements will remain a problem, as will crimes associated with the trade, but these concerns have not been addressed to date.
?The timber industry faces an uncertain ?uture if it fails to address the problem of illegal logging and unsustainable wood imports," said Beatrix Richards, WWF’s Forest Policy Officer for Europe. "Europe needs to remove this wood from the market to ensure a level playing field for legal traders and the survival of the world?s forests.?
The statement signed by NGOs calls for civil society to be fully involved in the development of partnership agreements to propose solutions and to promote responsible forest management. It also requests measures in the areas of customs cooperation, investment, and public-purchasing policies.
WWF, Greenpeace, and FERN emphasize that in addition to their draft regulation, the EU will need to deal with the crimes associated with the illegal timber trade, such as bribery and money-laundering.
Notes:
? More than 1.2 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods, according to the World Bank?s Sustaining Forests report
? 50 per cent of tropical timber imports into the EU are estimated to come from illegal sources (European League Table of Imports of Illegal Timber, Friends of the Earth), and up to 25 per cent of imports from north-west Russia (Illegal logging in north- western Russia and export of Russian forest products to Sweden, WWF, April 2003).
? The European Commission acknowledged in its Action Plan that for a variety of reasons, some important wood-producing countries may choose not to enter into FLEGT partnership agreements with the EU, despite the advantages outlined.