The European Commission is being urged by WWF to make illegal logging prosecutable as a criminal offence.
Key findings of WWF’s latest evaluation on how 19 EU governments are tackling illegal logging show that at least 16 countries are ready to outlaw illegal logging Europe-wide.
The survey – “Government Barometer” – also found that 15 governments are ready to tackle illegal logging in the new member states and candidate countries.
But a lack of strong measures domestically to tackle illegal logging and related trade still exists, with only the UK obtaining satisfactory results and Germany, Denmark, France, Latvia and Sweden being rated from moderate to good.
Political support for criminalising illegal logging inside the EU has increased, but WWF maintains that the EC is ignoring the issue, despite implementing several measures under its action plan on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT).
WWF said that without additional legislation, the recently announced FLEGT measures would not have the desired effect.
Beatrix Richards, WWF forest policy officer, said: “Illegal logging needs to become prosecutable as a criminal offence, full stop. The results of this study send a clear message to the EC to stop dragging its feet on outlawing the import of illegal timber into the EU.”
