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Forests

The illegal logging of timber

Illegal logging refers to the illegal harvesting, transporting, selling or buying of timber. Illegal logging often leads to deforestation, causes climate disruption and is responsible for around one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Forests play an important role in protecting plants and animal species, water resources and soil. They also provide millions of the world's poorest people with clean air, water, food, medicines and many other raw materials that are vital to their health and quality of life.

Illegal logging is also closely associated with corruption and organised crime and in some cases with violent conflict. It also undermines the competitiveness of the forest-sector industry operations in both exporting and importing countries. But where forest governance is strengthened policies to conserve and sustainably manage forests and reduce deforestation become much more effective.

EU Policy on fighting illegal logging

The European Union's policy to fight illegal logging and associated trade was defined back in 2003 with the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. The FLEGT Action Plan consists of three essential elements:

  1. concluding FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements with timber-producing countries which voluntarily conclude such agreements to improve forest governance and transparency in their forest sector. The first agreement was negotiated with Ghana in September 2008 and negotiations are on-going with a number of countries including Malaysia, Cameroon, Indonesia and Congo. A number of other timber-producing countries have expressed interest in concluding FLEGT agreements with the EU.
  2. encouraging EU Member States to implement public procurement practices that give preference to legally harvested timber and timber products.
  3. complementing the two previous elements with additional measures to address the problem of illegal logging and associated trade in a more comprehensive way. The aim of such measures are to prevent the trade in illegally harvested timber, further strengthen the growing demand for timber from guaranteed legal sources and act as an incentive for timber-producing countries to join FLEGT and improve forest governance.

The objective of the proposed legislation the Commission presented in October 2008 is to reinforce the measures in the FLEGT Action Plan by minimising the risk of illegally harvested timber entering the EU.

Curtailing illegal timber entering the EU

The October 2008 legislative proposal asks operators to take concrete steps to minimise the risk of putting illegally harvested timber and timber products on the EU market. Operators will use the due diligence system, thus enabling them to ascertain the legality of the products. The proposal requires responsible and pro-active behaviour by operators. The proposed regulation will make it an obligation for traders to identify the country of origin of their timber, and ensure that timber they sell has been harvested according to the relevant laws of that country. This will enable Member States to significantly influence illegal logging and send a strong message to suppliers to the EU market. The proposal will increase the protection of forests, especially in developing countries that export forest products to the EU.