Environment, Europe, Headlines

ENVIRONMENT-EU: New Measures in Fight Against Illegal Logging

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jul 20 2004 (IPS) - Environmental groups have slammed a proposal by the European Union to combat the growing problem of illegal logging in developing countries.

The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, unveiled a set of measures Tuesday (Jul. 20) to prevent illegally harvested timber from developing countries reaching the EU market.

Illegal logging means timber being harvested, transported, bought or sold in violation of national laws. This further leads to illegal processing and export, false declaration to customs, or avoidance of taxes and other charges.

The practice of illegal logging and related trade in illegally harvested timber is estimated to cost governments in affected developing countries between an estimated 12.3 and 18.5 billion dollars (10 and 15 billion euros) every year in lost revenue.

The Commission says the new package, which falls under the executive’s existing Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), is based on an "innovative approach that links the push for good governance in developing countries with the legal instruments and leverage offered by the EU’s internal market.."

The Commission plans to set up voluntary partnerships with wood-producing countries in developing and transition countries badly affected by illegal logging.

Within the framework of these agreements the Commission says it will assist developing countries to improve governance in their timber sectors by introducing clear legislation on harvesting and implementing control measures to ensure that legislation is respected.

The Commission also plans to introduce a regulation that sets up a legally binding licensing scheme with partner countries to ensure that only legal timber from these countries is allowed into the EU market if certified by the proposed scheme..

The Commission says the new measures will encourage all major wood importing countries recognise the "vital role" they must play in closing down the international trade in illegal timber.

"Only by working in close partnership with wood-producing countries can we hope to have a real impact. The partnership agreements provide producing countries with the incentives and support required for them to play a leading role in the fight against illegal logging," Poul Nielson, EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, said in a statement Tuesday (Jul. 20).

"Today we are showing the way. I strongly encourage others to join our ranks," he added.

"We want to promote honest logging as an important contribution to the social and economic development of our partner countries," he said. "And we want to protect our own consumers. Ultimately the European consumer should be able to buy garden furniture with a clear conscience."

The Commission launched the FLEGT plan in May last year with the aim of combating illegal logging by "helping to improve law enforcement and governance in wood- producing countries, and by working to stop the trade in illegally harvested wood."

But environmental groups say the latest proposals will not prevent the import of illegal timber into the EU market.

Greenpeace says the plan will not lead to legislation to outlaw illegal wood imports and bring the criminals involved to justice.

"While the Commission is prompt to act on car traffickers and counterfeit goods traders, it lets criminals get away with plundering irreplaceable ancient forests, undermining development in the poorest regions of the world and threatening global biodiversity and the future of local populations," Sébastien Risso of the Greenpeace European Unit said Tuesday.

The environmental group is also concerned that the proposal does not set up binding principles to ensure that timber licences will be consistent with each other or effective in stopping illegal logging in those countries.

Riso says the Commission has bulldozed the proposals through without consulting the European Parliament or other concerned actors.

"It is regrettable that the Commission did not take into account the recommendations made by other institutions and NGOs when deciding how to deal with the problem of the vast quantities of illegal timber imported each year into the EU by unscrupulous companies," he added. "Commissioners should realise that you can’t stop loggers with catapults."

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) welcomed the Commission’s continuing efforts on the issue, but the environmental group said the voluntary scheme does not go far enough.

"The Commission has ignored calls from six member states to make it a crime to import illegal logging. Despite all the new measures and goodwill, the import of illegal logging still needs to be outlawed. In this sense, voluntary partnerships aren’t enough to tackle the problem properly," said WWF spokesperson Louis Bélanger.

Earlier this year a WWF ‘government barometer’ revealed that the majority of the 15 old EU member states were failing to take action against illegal logging.

The survey released in April showed that while most member states supported efforts at the EU level to outlaw import of illegal wood and endorsed the FLEGT plan, they were failing to implement strong measures in their domestic markets.

The report showed that the 12 EU countries that were rated in the study – Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Britain – failed to meet the criteria needed to tackle the problem of illegal logging.

The group says that the latest FLEGT measures will not tackle the internal problem of logging.

"Millions of euros are lost every year due to the trade in illegal logging coming to the new member states and into the internal market. It’s the taxpayers and our own industries that carry the cost. The Commission understands the problem, knows the root of it, why couldn’t it tackle it?" Bélanger asked.