EU regulation would outlaw imports of illegally logged timber
Environmental groups including Greenpeace and WWF today presented a draft regulation to the EU that would outlaw illegal wood imports into the UK and Europe and promote sustainable forest management worldwide. The groups are calling for the regulation to become law. One hundred and sixty other global social and environmental organisations back the call for legislation.
Illegal logging on Africa's Ivory Coast
Fifty per cent of tropical timber imports into the EU are estimated to come from illegal sources. Greenpeace, WWF and FERN drew up the model legislation as a response to the European Commission's Action Plan to combat illegal logging and its related trade, whose first package of measures will be discussed by EU Agriculture Ministers on 21 December.
"It is a stain on Brussels that timber traders in Britain and the EU can import illegally logged timber with impunity," said Greenpeace Campaigner Patrick Venditti. "Illegal and destructive logging is laying waste to many of the world's most valuable forests. If Brussels can make pirate CDs illegal, they should surely do the same for illegally logged timber products."
The draft regulation drawn up by campaign groups recognises illegal logging and its related trade as an environmental crime, and allows for sanctions in the event of abuse of documents certifying the wood's legality (eg, no import notification, false declaration, forged documents). It also proposes that sustainability criteria be developed in co-operation with timber-producing countries, and progressively integrated into laws to reassure the consumer that timber is both legal and from a sustainably managed forest.
This builds on the commission's current proposal, presented in July 2004, which aims to implement a credible chain of custody, to ensure the legality of timber imports from those countries which choose to sign partnership agreements with the EU. The commission and Parliament have each recognised that illegal timber imports from countries without partnership agreements will remain a problem [6], as will crimes associated with the trade, but these concerns have not been addressed to date.
"The timber industry faces an uncertain future if it fails to address the problem of illegal logging and unsustainable wood imports. Europe needs to remove this wood from the market to ensure a level playing field for legal traders and the survival of the world's forests," said Beatrix Richards of WWF.
The statement signed by 160 non-governmental organisations calls for civil society to be fully involved in the development of partnership agreements to propose solutions and promote responsible forest management, and for measures in the areas of customs co-operation, investment and public-purchasing policies.
FERN, WWF and Greenpeace also emphasise that in addition to their draft regulation, the EU will need to deal with the crimes associated with the illegal timber trade, such as bribery and money-laundering.
For further information, contact:
Pat Venditti - Greenpeace UK: 0207 865 8250
Notes to editors:
Fifty percent of tropical timber imports into the EU are estimated to come from illegal sources (European League Table of Imports of Illegal Timber, Friends of the Earth); and up to 25 per cent of imports from north-west Russia (Illegal logging in North-Western Russia and export of Russian forest products to Sweden, WWF, Jan 2003)
In January 2004, the EU Parliament's Industry and Trade Committee (ITRE) requested that the Commission "draft legislation to prohibit the import and marketing of all illegally-sourced forest products, and that it report back by June 2004."
Links
The draft regulation, commissioned from lawyers Van den Biesen Advocaten, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is available at: http://eu.greenpeace.org/downloads/forests/RegulationNGO.pdf
FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) - Proposal for an EU Action Plan, 21/05/2003: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/03/718&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Download the signed NGO statement at: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/controlling-timber-imports-int
