EU-Congo agreement against illegal timber trade

The European Union (EU) and the Republic of Congo signed, on 18 May, a forest law enforcement governance and trade voluntary partnership agreement under the FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade) programme. The agreement was signed on behalf of the EU by Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik and on behalf of the Congo by Henri Djombo, minister for forests, the environment and sustainable development. It means thatstarting in July 2011, all wood products entering the EU from the Republic of Congo must be certified to contain only legally harvested timber and timber products.

Successful implementation of the agreement requires technical and financial resources in a number of areas. The national traceability system foreseen in the agreement is already being implemented, with financial support of €2M from the EU and national funding of €1.08M. The Republic of Congo, the second state to sign such an agreement, after Ghana in 2009, exports more than €250M worth of timber and timber products annually, about half of which to the EU. Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are the principal European importers. Negotiations are in progress with Cameroon, Liberia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. In addition, preliminary discussions have begun with the Government of Gabon, and Central African Republic has also expressed interest in negotiating such a deal.

The World Bank estimates that insufficient regulation of timber production is currently costing Republic of Congo millions annually in lost revenue. In addition, while the country is now heavily dependent on oil exports for revenue, in February the World Bank warned that oil revenues in the Republic of Congo will soon sharply decline. Such a drop would put more pressure on forests in the fragile Congo Basin—the world’s second largest tropical forest—to provide much needed export earnings, thus boosting the incentive for illegal harvests.