EU Parliament votes to curb illegal timber trade

On 22 April, the European Parliament took a significant step forward by passing a proposal to strengthen legislation proposed earlier to crack down  on illegal timber trade in EU.

The proposal involves obligations for all operators in the supply chain to check the legality of wood products. It specifically demands that "all operators provide basic information about the source of the products, their country and forest of origin. They will also have to identify the operator who has supplied the timber and to whom it has been supplied, through a traceability system".

The EU Parliament further proposes to set up a monitoring system to control that operators are following the rules, and to establish severe penalties for offenders. It also urges the EU to adopt special requirements for high-risk sourcing of timber, e.g. from areas with a high level of corruption.

The due diligence debate

The regulations originally proposed by EU relied on the concept of 'due diligence' which was not very clearly defined, and which only applied to operators placing timber products on the EU market for the first time, thus effectively exempting the majority of timber traders from responsibility. 

The draft elicited criticism from NGOs who did not believe that the proposed measured were sufficient. For example, the NGO EIA termed the proposal 'due negligence', and WWF deemed that it did not "have the teeth needed to seriously clamp down on this trade” . 
In contrast, the proposal for stronger measures now adopted by the European Parliament is welcomed by the NGOs. 

On Wednesday, Greenpeace EU forest policy director Sebastien Risso said, “Today's vote has taken us a step closer to excluding illegal timber from the EU market, making companies accountable for the products they sell, and helping reduce the EU’s environmental and social footprint on the world’s forests".

The Confederation of European Paper Industries, CEPI, also welcomed the development, while pointing out that the organisation has already adopted a voluntary program to avoid the use of illegal timber by paper industries.

The next step

In June, the EU Agriculture Council will meet to discuss the proposed legislation. The legislation will only come into force after adoption by the Council.

Concerns regarding how such legislation will impact the around 16 million owners of small forest holdings in Europe are likely to be among the key issues.

In a statement of 9 March 2009, the Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF) asked for an exemption of small forest owners from the regulation.

CEPF calls for a system that places the administrative burden on the buyers of wood, and does not oblige the wood producer - the forest owner - to conduct a risk assessment of his own production. A similar concept is already in place in the FSC Controlled Wood system and works well - also for small forest owners. It thus appears that the potential problems for small forest operations are solvable.

One of the supporters of a stricter approach to illegal timber trade is the Danish Minister of Environment, Troels Lund Poulsen, who commented: 
”I am pleased that the EU parliamentarians today send a clear signal that they also want a tightening of the Commission's proposal.[...] A proper ban on illegal timber trade will be clear talk - it will send an understandable signal to consumers and traders as well as producers of illegal wood". 

According to forest policy adviser Jonas Fredsted from the Danish Ministry of Environment, Denmark actively pursues this line in council negotiations and hopes for support from other EU member states.

Severe measures needed to tackle big problems

The European Parliament highlights the importance and dimensions of the problems related to illegal timber trade, clearly justifying the adoption of strong legal measures:

• Tropical forests are disappearing at a rate of about 13 million hectares per year - an area the size of Greece.
• Deforestation is a major factor in climate change as it leads to around 20% of global CO2 emissions.
• An estimated 20% to 40% of global industrial wood production comes from illegal sources.

In a communication on the European Parliament proposition, Anke Schulmeister, Forests Policy Officer at WWF, said, “As a major producer and importer of timber, the EU has a key role to play for preservation of forests worldwide. It is only fair that companies are requested to install systems proving that the timber they sell is legal, respect the environment and the rights of local people. This must go together with adequate sanctions.” 

The European Union's policy to fight illegal logging and associated trade was defined in 2003 with the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Action Plan, perhaps better known as FLEGT. 

Sources: The European Parliament, CEPI, EIA, Greenpeace, WWF , CEPF and the Danish Ministry of Environment.