Policy recommendations

  • The European Commission should adopt legislation which requires that only legally-harvested timber and timber products coming from legal sources and responsibly-managed forests be placed on the European market. Legislation should be cost-effective, fair and enforceable and should include sanctions. The primary responsibility for proving legality should rest with all companies that are importing or selling products in the EU, thus creating a level playing field and being WTO-compatible.
  • The European Commission should strengthen the FLEGT-process of supporting wood producing countries to improve forest law enforcement, tackle corruption and promote socially and environmentally responsible forest management.
  • The EU should enlarge the number of Voluntary Partnership Agreements with producing countries. A participatory multi-stakeholder process, including local communities and indigenous peoples, should be at the core of these VPAs.
  • The EU should broaden the range of products covered by VPAs to cover all timber products. 
  • The EU Member States should speed up the implementation of sustainable public procurement for wood products including social and environmental criteria. 
  • The European Commission should endeavour to bring best practices in EU countries together and give clear guidance to Member States on how they can implement sustainable procurement by developing guidelines and tools to include social and environmental criteria in public procurement.

Case: Illegal Logging

11-10-2010 The VPAs with Cameroon and DRC, MEP Eva Joly gives her opinion

The European Commission is currently conducting negotiations on Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with both Cameroon and the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade in timber and derived products to the European Union (FLEGT). On behalf of the Development Committee within the European Parliament, MEP Eva Joly (Greens/EFA) wrote two opinions on the reports written by the International Trade committee.

For both countries it is highlighted that the position of the forest-dependent communities and indigenous people must be secured in the forest governance reform. This reform should aim at improving forest governance, enforcement mechanisms, and tackling corruption. A second point is that the role of all the stakeholders in the law reform process should be clearly defined. A last remark from Eva Joly is that the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) schemes are seen as a different scheme than FLEGT, yet this should be complementary.

By means of the VPAs  the EU tries to stop illegal logging and promote development in these forest areas. Fair Politics agrees with Eva Joly that the VPAs could potentially succeed if the reforms benefit all stakeholders. Not only the leaders, but especially the forest-dependent communities. Illegal logging is causing deforestation and is therefore a serious threat for the livelihood of these people. The EU must make sure that the imported wood does not harm development in both Cameroon and the DRC.

For the concerns expressed in these two opinions on the VPAs with Cameroon and the DRC, MEP Eva Joly (Greens/EFA) is recognized as Fair Politician. Therefore she will earn four points, two for each opinion, in our monitor system. Will this MEP succeed in becoming Fair Politician of the year twice in a row? 

Monitor fair: Greens/EFA(4)