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Governments must act to combat illegal logging
 Geneva, 8 November 2005 – Governments must play the frontline role in creating enabling governance conditions for sustainable forest management that will also directly address illegal forestry activities. This is one of the key messages of a joint civil society/forest industry dialogue, held in preparation of the Europe and North Asia (ENA) Forest Law Enforcement Governance (FLEG) Ministerial Conference to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 22-25 November 2005.
Hosted in St Petersburg from 2-3 November 2005 by The Forests Dialogue (TFD) – a multi-stakeholder process – participants agreed on 8 priority recommendations for government action in those regions where a high percentage of forest related activity is know to be illegal.
The dialogue warned that corruption must be openly recognized and directly addressed as an urgent priority: “More regulation without addressing corruption leads to further corruption and fraud – leading to greater social injustices. It undermines confidence in the rule of law, penalizes legitimate business, and further impoverishes disadvantaged communities and ultimately works against sustainable forest management”, says James Griffiths, Director of the WBCSD’s Sustainable Forest Products Industry (SFPI) project and member of The Forests Dialogue steering committee.
Participants also acknowledged that consumers and producers share responsibility to support the market for legal and sustainable forest products, which can be accomplished by means such as responsible purchasing policies by companies, forest and chain-of-custody certification, wood tracking systems and public procurement policies compatible with international law and obligations.
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Background: Europe and North Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (ENA FLEG) Ministerial Conference
The Europe and North Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (ENA FLEG) Ministerial Conference is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 22-25, 2005. The ENA FLEG process aims to mobilize international commitment from producer, consumer and donor governments to increase efforts to combat illegal logging as well as the associated trade and corruption in the forest sector in the Europe and North Asia Region. The Ministerial Conference is expected to result in the endorsement of an ENA FLEG Ministerial Declaration and Indicative Action Plan.
The Ministerial Conference will bring together more than 200 governmental and other stakeholders to:
- share and explore the best current thinking on forest governance;
- deliberate on priority issues of forest governance, including illegal forest exploitation and associated trade in the region with representatives from both “producer” and “consumer” governments, industry representatives, NGOs and donor organizations;
- identify ways in which various stakeholders can address these issues through national actions and partnerships between producer and consumer governmental programs, donor programs, private sector and civil society; and
- develop and endorse an ENA FLEG Ministerial Declaration and Indicative Action Plan, drafted by authorized representatives from producer and consumer governments, to express political commitment for action at national, regional and international levels.
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While the majority of the discussions focused on recommendations for governmental action, participants agreed that industry and civil society will continue to partner on joint initiatives to combat illegal logging and associated trade. However, even though such partnerships have led to innovation and best practices, these are not a substitute for comprehensive government action to directly address illegal activities.
Recommendations from The Forests Dialogue’s preparatory event for the ENA FLEG Ministerial Conference are::
- Legal, equitable and sustainable forest management should be the ultimate goal of the ENA FLEG process -- governments must demonstrate the political will to take action to this end.
- Forest governance is a societal responsibility, however governments have the key role in creating an enabling environment.
- A good governance framework is fundamental to legal, equitable and sustainable forest management.
- Corruption must be openly recognized and directly addressed as an urgent priority.
- Partnerships between responsible forest industry and civil society have led to innovation and taken the lead in establishing best practice. This, however, is not a substitute for comprehensive government action.
- Consumers and producers -- companies, governments, financial institutions and” individuals - share responsibility to support the market for legal and sustainable forest products in ways which avoid penalizing legal operations.
- Governments must commit to develop a time bound follow-up program for implementing the declaration and indicative action plan.
- Bilateral and multilateral cooperation involving consuming, donor and producer countries will play a critical role in supporting the development and time-bound implementation of National Action Plans (NAP).
Furthermore, participants identified a number of key actions that should be specifically reflected in the proposed ENA FLEG Indicative Action Plan.
Further information
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Thorsten Arndt |
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8 Nov 2005 |
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WBCSD news
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Forest Products
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WBCSD
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| Include In RSS |
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WBCSD News & Updates
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