They visited Brussels to discuss the recently ratified Honduras VPA and the upcoming proposed regulation on the EU import of agricultural and forest commodities associated with deforestation and forest degradation.
The Honduran delegation also expressed an interest in seeing one of the major importers of tropical timber in Europe, and so they visited Vandecasteele’s Houtimport premises.
Mario Martinez, the Honduran forestry minister, was accompanied by a delegation consisting of Dolan Castro, the head of the FLEGT secretariat; Jose Filadelfo Martinez, the FLEGT VPA facilitator; Rosario Garcia, a representative from indigenous communities; Carmen Borjas, a representative from the private sector; and Sebastiaan De Smedt, forest governance and timber legality assurance expert of the VPA ALA facility, European Forest Institute.
