Governments from across Europe and North Asia commited to clamp down on illegal logging and the associated trade in illegal wood products at a ministerial conference on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT).
Actions agreed by ministers at the meeting in St Petersburg include establishing an open and transparent database on domestic and international trade in wood and forest products.
Ministers also agreed to promote tools designed to strengthen sustainable forest management, including certification, tracking systems and satellite information/GIS data.
The meeting also highlighted the need for customs codes to be applied properly to allow accurate monitoring of the flow of timber and forest products, plus the adoption or extension of public timber procurement policies which favour legal timber.
Governments will now secure support for the initiatives, and any regional/national strategies they may generate, from multilateral organisations including the World Bank and UN Food and Agricultural Organisation.
Representatives of the timber trade and private forest owners issued a statement to ministers saying it was “essential” policies do not create negative incentives by raising the costs of legal forest products.
Such incentives, the statement says, would make the illegal forest products trade even more profitable and undermine timber’s competitiveness compared to steel, cement and plastic, which are not as environmentally-friendly.
