The UK government and the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) have welcomed a proposed EU import licensing system designed to prevent trade in illegal logging.
The basis of the measure, which has been adopted by the EU Commission and will now go for approval to the European Council, will be “voluntary partnerships” with supplier countries that have a known illegal logging problem.
Partner countries will get EU help to improve “governance reform in their timber sectors”. They will also sign up to a “legally binding licensing scheme to ensure that only legal timber is allowed into the EU.”
According to Andy Roby, corporate social responsibility adviser at the TTF, the EU scheme will generally accept the supplier countries’ own definition of what is “legal timber”.
“But in some cases, such as Indonesia, this may have to be backed up with third party scrutiny,” he said.
Among the first countries expected to sign up for EU partnerships are Malaysia, Indonesia, possibly Papua New Guinea, Russia, Honduras Guatemala, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Ghana has already made approaches on the issue and Ivory Coast is also expected to be interested.
“The six Congo Basin countries are also candidates,” said Mr Roby.
Countries with a record of illegal problems that do not join the partnership scheme can still export to EU.
“But when you’ve got government’s such as the the UK’s stipulating ‘legal timber’ from their contractors it will obviously put those countries at a disadvantage,” said Mr Roby.
UK environment minister Elliot Morley said that countries that join the scheme “will benefit from having an additional weapon to control illegal logging and their legitimate timber producers may also gain greater market share in the EU.”
