On April 22nd, 2013, representatives from Vietnam including three government officials, two delegates from CSOs (one of them a SRD representative from the VNGO-FLEGT Network), one delegate from the private sector and one delegate from EFI Vietnam attended a workshop on timber legality assurance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The workshop which was co-organised by the European Forest Institute’s EU FLEGT Facility and the ASEAN Secretariat attracted 70 participants from seven ASEAN Member States, the European Union (EU) and Ghana.
This is the third workshop on the matter of timber legality. The two earlier were organised in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2010 and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 2011. The meetings provide a forum for exchanging experiences on developing timber legality assurance systems through FLEGT VPA processes. Over the three days, the meeting strove to enhance capacity, exchange experiences and increase collaboration among the agencies and stakeholder groups in Southeast Asia on the matter of timber legality.
Timber markets worldwide are increasingly responding to the problem of illegal timber and associated trade. Consumer countries such as the US, Australia and countries within the European Union have developed policies to keep illegal timber from entering their markets. A large portion of timber and timber products from ASEAN countries are being exported to these consumer countries. Several ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are engaged in negotiations or planning to start negotiations on Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with the EU. VPAs are trade agreements between the EU and timber producing countries aimed at halting illegal logging and its associated trade. The partnership would mean that only legal timber products were allowed to enter the EU market, this will in turn promote good forest governance and law enforcement in the producing countries benefiting social development and environmental aspects in the involved countries.
“The strengthening of forest governance and the implementation of effective policies to conserve and sustainably manage forest resources and reduce unintended deforestation should be prioritised. A FLEGT VPA process contributes to improve the governance of the forestry sector as it creates and supports multi-stakeholder consultations. In this way a VPA helps to build a shared commitment towards sustainable forest management in the country.” said Ambassador Luc van de Bon, who opened the meeting.
According to Dr. Alexander Hinrichs, the facilitator of the workshop, the implementation of timber legality assurance is essential since it ensures a good forest management and responsible timber trade. During the workshop he said:
“The EU has worked bilaterally with a number of ASEAN Member States in recent years on this topic. Sharing experience among ASEAN Member States will help to further develop ASEAN’s forest sector by improving performance, ensuring access to international markets, and promoting governance within individual ASEAN Member States and throughout the community.”
On May 2nd, 2013, representatives from SRD who partook in the workshop in Kuala Lumpur shared the discussions and conclusions of the workshop to other members of the Vietnamese Non-Governmental Organisations (VNGOs) and Climate network.As the global demand in legal timber is growing and consumer countries are introducing legislation to stop the placing of illegal timber on their markets, this third event, helping ASEAN Member States to work towards supplying legal timber, is timely.
For further information on ASEAN Forest Policy please click here.
For further information on The Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Initiative please click here.
- SRD -
Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)
No.31, Alley 19 Kim Dong Street, Hoang Mai District, Ha Noi
Phone: +84 24 3943 6676/78 | Fax: +84 24 3943 6449
