The EU legal and policy tools to address illegal logging

The EU Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (hereinafter FLEGT) outlines a process and a package of measures through which the European Commission proposes to address the problem of illegal logging and associated trade. The proposed policy involves setting up a licensing scheme to ensure that only legally harvested timber is imported from participating countries. The Action Plan emphasises governance reforms and capacity building, while supporting multilateral cooperation and measures to reduce the consumption of illegally harvested timber. The Action Plan constitutes a commitment on the part of the European Community to the pursuit of sustainable forest management within and outside the EU. To implement the Action Plan, the implementation of five Regulations has been mandated.

Firstly, Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 establishes the framework for the importation of designated timber products within the European Community, mandating rigorous checks and controls to ensure their legitimacy. The Regulation implements the FLEGT licensing scheme through Partnership Agreements with timber-producing countries

Secondly, Regulation (EC) No 1024/2008 establishes comprehensive regulations for the implementation of the timber import system as outlined in Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005. The Regulation establishes a standardised format for licences, accompanied by straightforward and pragmatic procedures.

Thirdly, Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 establishes the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the internal market, and the obligations of traders.

The fourth element to consider is Regulation (EU) No 363/2012, which establishes the procedural framework for the recognition and withdrawal of recognition of monitoring organisations, as outlined in Regulation (EU) No 995/2010.

The fifth element to consider is Regulation (EU) No 607/2012, which establishes the detailed rules concerning the due diligence system and the frequency and nature of the checks on monitoring organisations.

What options could have been explored by the EU?

The European Commission’s commitment to the FLEGT Action Plan, alongside the legal instruments designed to operationalise it, has resulted in pivotal shifts within producer countries. These alterations have precipitated policy and governance reforms, enhanced legal frameworks, and augmented global market influence. Nevertheless, challenges related to forest governance persist in producer countries, and in some cases, this is attributable to a paucity of institutional support and a lack of transparency in the processes.

In consideration of the EU’s overarching objective of promoting forest sustainability and mitigating the impact on natural ecosystems, policies are devised to address deforestation and forest conversion, thereby enhancing their efficacy. For instance, legal timber that complies with licensing schemes may be harvested in an unsustainable manner, while illegal timber can come from a sustainable source. One pertinent example of this phenomenon is evidenced in the case of indigenous communities that have established a sustainable management system that does not align with the formal governmental requirements.

To tackle the broader objectives, the EU should promote new policies and/or legislation in support of local governance and to guarantee indigenous populations and local communities the rights to which they are entitled. To illustrate this point, it is vital to consider the role of licensing schemes and due diligence regulations in preventing the association of forest commodities with deforestation, ecosystem conversion, and violations of human rights.

It is evident that in certain instances, communities engaged in efforts to combat deforestation have been adversely affected by the extraction of timber from their respective territories. It has been observed by numerous stakeholders that environmental and land defenders have been killed while advocating for the protection of the environment. Given that the legislation addresses issues that are of interest to the EU, Commissioners should collaborate to address various environmental matters, including human rights, transparency, and democracy. These measures are intended to address not only illegal logging but also broader objectives aimed at combating deforestation.

Moreover, within the context of governance challenges, a lacuna exists in the local traffic of illegal logging among producer countries, primarily due to the complexity involved in tracking the source of goods not intended for direct export.

Consequently, the issue of timber traceability should be accorded significant importance by producer and importer countries. The establishment of an international tracking system has the potential to serve as a complementary mechanism to the licensing scheme, thereby facilitating a more comprehensive assurance of legal compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

Furthermore, the implementation of Voluntary Partnership Agreements involving multiple countries, in conjunction with the establishment of a framework for enforcement cooperation, has the potential to enhance cross-border enforcement operations at the regional level.

In conclusion, given that the EU’s stated objective is to address the issue of deforestation on a global scale, the EU FLEGT Action Plan may be enhanced by the implementation of a policy – or, indeed, an additional Action Plan – that recognises the role of other factors in the process of deforestation, such as the expansion of the agricultural sector, which is widely regarded as one of the primary drivers of deforestation. Subsequently, the standards and certification schemes must be altered to ensure that states understand the implications of land ownership and utilisation.