The Courier

The EU is the highest-value importer of African sawn wood and unhewn timber.

© Greenpeace

For the first time, the Rio meeting sought to link economic development and environmental protection. A tough exercise, but one that nevertheless resulted in the adoption of three international agreements: on climate, biodiversity and desertification. Unfortunately, at that same Rio meeting, the 100 or so heads of state did not succeed in agreeing on a binding text to ensure a sustainable exploitation of forests. They simply adopted a set of ‘Principles regarding forests’ – principles that have been eroded progressively at each subsequent conference. A lot is at stake over the forest issue. Forests are much coveted: by loggers who turn them into construction timber or pulp; by industrialists who destroy them to make way for other high-yielding species; by scientists who want to save these gems of biodiversity from human action and most recently by the Kyoto Protocol signatory countries ready to trade in their good deeds as carbon pools to meet their climatic obligations. Now, however, having been forgotten or overlooked at these international conferences, forest peoples are now making their voices heard.

Multiple initiatives

The European Union has implemented and is continuing to implement several policies to try and respond to these challenges. Alongside its active participation in international forums, it was a leading partner in the famous pilot programme launched at the time by the G7 (the PPG7) for a sustainable management of the Amazon Forest in Brazil. This programme is currently dormant due to a lack of political will. Internally, it has put into place and there are many programmes dealing directly or indirectly with the problem of deforestation. These include the ‘tropical forests’ credit line, launched in 1990 at the European Parliament’s initiative, which serves to finance projects ranging from sustainable development to conservation, research and the involvement of local populations. Two years later, following the Earth Summit, the European Union launched an ambitious regional programme to conserve tropical forests, known as ECOFAC, which currently concentrates on designating protected areas in seven countries of the Congo Basin. Under pressure from government ecological organisations, it has also decided to tackle the persistent problem of illegal timber imports into the EU. In May 2003, the Commission adopted its action plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). Finally, forests are increasingly included in international climate negotiations, as demonstrated by the Carbon Forest Initiative adopted by the G8 and to be implemented by the World Bank in cooperation with international institutions, including the EU.

Good governance and sustainable timber

In terms of value, the EU is the world’s biggest importer of African sawlogs and round wood and the second largest market for Asian sawlogs, while Africa and Asia are both regions where illegal logging and the related trade are common practice. European NGOs estimate that more than 50% of EU tropical wood imports and more than 20% of its boreal wood imports are of illegal origin. As a major timber consumer, the EU can play a major role in combating illegal logging and the related trade. This is not a new issue and there have been many initiatives to certify ‘sustainable’ origin over the past decade, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) being Europe’s best known label. But to date the EU has preferred not to adopt a position in the face of the variety of different labels. In 2003, following pressure from environmental and social NGOs, it opted for a voluntary system based on the partnership agreements concluded with importing countries. The FLEGT was thus born. Above all, this makes it possible to avoid a total ban on tropical wood which some NGOs are demanding as a last resort.

“As a major timber consumer, the EU can play a major role in combating illegal logging”

The Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) are based on a series of undertakings, ranging from support for governance in the producing countries to the introduction of a licence system that implies first setting up a reliable administrative and technical structure to enable the timber to be traced back to the ports and ensure it was produced in a ‘sustainable’ manner. For many producing countries this presents a considerable challenge. This is why the EU plans to help these countries to respect their undertakings by including technical and financial assistance in the partnership agreements.

Suppressing war timber

“The challenge”, believes Iola Leal Riesco, of the European Forests Network FERN, “is to strike at the roots of illegal logging: corruption, lack of transparency, bad policy or excessive influence of the forestry industry both in the processes and in drawing up the laws. Taking action against local communities or operators in the field will simply increase conflict and poverty. Also, the first step in the FLEGT process is to implement genuine political dialogue with the aim of introducing political reforms and strengthening the rights of local populations”. The FERN official stresses that illegal logging is particularly difficult to combat as it can be an inherent part of a country’s economy, supporting political parties, the police and communities. She also believes that in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where 70% of the population (35 million people) depend on the forest, logging helped to finance the civil war that killed 3.5 million people. Finally, she points to the sanctions imposed at the time by the UN Security Council on exports of timber from Liberia: timber sold to finance the civil war that was raging in the country.

“Illegal logging is particularly difficult to combat as it can be an inherent part of a country’s economy”

For now, the EU has initiated negotiations with Malaysia and Indonesia in Asia and with Ghana and Cameroon in Africa. Consultations are also planned with Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon. In 2004, around €17 million were allocated to support pilot projects aimed at ensuring an independent verification of logging activities. In 2006 a technical assistance programme worth €15 million was set up in Indonesia.

A network of protected areas

On 31 January 2006, the European Commission gave the green light to include the DRC on the list of countries in the Congo Basin benefiting from the ECOFAC (Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa) programme. This is a long awaited decision as, despite having the largest forest cover in the Congo Basin, the DRC’s political difficulties had prevented it from benefiting from the programme. The decision was accompanied by a further financial allocation of €38 million devoted to phase four of the programme. Another innovation is the declared link between efforts for forest conservation and development and the fight against poverty. The aim is to guarantee the forest populations their means of subsistence while also avoiding poaching made easier by the creation of roads by the loggers.

ECOFAC now covers protected areas in seven central African countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe and the DRC. With the return of the latter country, which represents half of the region’s wooded area, the programme covers 180,000 km² of tropical forest and savannah ecosystems in a region that is home to the world’s second largest tropical forest system, surpassed only by the Amazon Forest. But ECOFAC IV also awards more attention to the peoples who inhabit these forests. The European Commission recognizes that conservation of these forests is critical for the development of 65 million people.

The needs of local populations, who are extremely dependent on forest resources, are now a major component of a programme that has invested a great deal in the search for the strategies and means able to reconcile human development and conservation with complementary projects in rural development and micro-projects.

The programme was first launched in 1992 in the wake of the International Convention on Biodiversity. Its aim is to contribute to the conservation and rational use of the forest ecosystems and biodiversity of central Africa. One of the programme’s principal strengths is its regional approach as reflected in implementation of the Central Africa Network of Protected Areas (RAPAC) which seeks to transfer the ECOFAC experience to other protected areas in the sub-region. In all, more than €70 million were allocated during the first three phases out of the 6th, 7th and 8th EDF. ECOFAC IV represents the EU’s biggest contribution to implementation of the Convergence Plan drawn up by the Comifac (Central Africa Forests Commission) countries and support for the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), born of the agreement between donors and NGOs at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. Also, this new phase foresees a participation in the action plan on implementation of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, the FLEGT programme (see separate article).

Climatic ambitions

“As a result of controls on the exploitation of our forests, our country has suffered a loss of earnings in the region of US$1.5 billion”, declared the Congolese Environment Minister Didace Pembe Bokiaga on 28 February at the international conference on the sustainable management of the DRC’s forests, held in Brussels. This is a sum that the Kinshasa government certainly plans to put into negotiations in connection with the Convention on Climate Change. The underlying idea is that the environmental services provided by the world’s tropical forests, notably due to non-deforestation, have a price. It is a price that developed countries must pay as they bear most of the responsibility for global warming. How? Through the market mechanisms foreseen in the Kyoto Protocol. One of these, the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) allows developed countries to earn emission credits by investing in sustainable projects in developing countries. But as yet only reforestation projects (mostly plantations) are recognised in the protocol. The minister continued: “Another system that we are currently exploring consists of conservation concessions enabling people, companies and governments around the world to draw up contracts with the DRC and local populations to hire the forests and have the right not to exploit them so that they can be managed as protected areas while local populations and the government can draw concrete benefits from them”.

A “Carbon Facility” for the forests

The request has been granted, at least in part. Last June the world’s eight most industrialised countries met in Germany where they approved a series of initiatives proposed by the World Bank to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on climate. They include the creation of a ‘carbon forest’ partnership designed to avoid deforestation, which experts believe is responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. This partnership consists of a series of pilot projects implemented initially in a number of key countries such as the DRC, Brazil and Indonesia. Minister Pembe believes that the DRC could receive around US$6 billion a year, a considerable sum when one considers that the country’s total budget is unlikely to exceed US$2 billion in 2007. However, these projects will not be included in the market mechanisms (including the CO2 exchange) provided for in the Kyoto Protocol until 2012 and the start of the protocol’s second phase where the greatest uncertainty remains.

Forests saved by carbon markets? Some experts doubt it. Jutta Kill of the FERN ecological research organisation believes that this instrument that “depends on financing by industrialised countries to operate could be a failure to the extent that it does not tackle the real causes of deforestation but, on the contrary, risks increasing the conflict to the extent that the benefits will not go to the local communities”.

Tropical forests: A threatened resource
Forests under close surveillance
ACP: a forest mosaic