These were the key messages from a recent seminar in which leading members of the European Parliament met Indonesian representatives to discuss the fight against illegal logging.
Fiona Hall, North East Euro MEP, said illegal logging had had “a devastating effect on indigenous communities, destroyed vast areas of forest and put precious species at risk of exctinction”.
The EU has initiated the FLEGT Action Plan to address the problem – from producer to consuming countries.
The initiative allows for a Voluntary Partnership Agreement between producing countries and the EU that include forest governance, trade and a licensing scheme that will bring in tracking systems with independent monitoring and verification.
