Strengthening controls on timber imports
The European Commission should consider strengthening current measures to ensure that timber imported into the EU is not the result of illegal logging. This is the conclusion drawn from public consultations by the Commission between December 2006 and March 2007. These consultations examined the need to support the policy currently pursued by the EU based on voluntary partnership agreements with certain exporting countries: agreements known by the English acronym FLEGT*.
Most of those involved in these discussions, including the private sector, believe that the bilateral negotiations carried out by the EU in the framework of the FLEGT will not be enough to guarantee the legality of timber entering EU territory. And indeed, a majority – although a narrow majority in the case of industry – believe that it is not too premature to be considering additional measures. Opinions vary as to what measures, with a third of the private sector (unlike the NGOs) believing that the voluntary agreements they have concluded will be enough to resolve much of the problem. As to a ban on the imports of illegal timber, responses are more mixed, although most participants are in favour of legislation that would guarantee only legally logged timber to be sold in Europe. Now, these various options must be evaluated on their overall impact by the Finnish company Indufor and the Commission, which must submit its formal evaluation of the situation by March 2008.
* The EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) is the EU’s action plan to clamp down on illegal logging and illegally traded timber. Implemented from May 2003, it links good governance with legal trade instruments.
