Forest law enforcement and governance (FLEG)
Failures of forest law enforcement and lack of good governance make illegal logging and other forest crime common occurrences in various parts of the world. The causes and implications of the problem are not confined to individual countries; international trade in timber products “exports” the problem to regional and global levels. Successful strategies to curb illegal activities may require measures targeting either the supply (at source) or demand (markets and trade) or both. Indufor has been developing tools for both approaches.
Good governance and good forest management
Good forest governance cannot be separated from good forest management; one does not exist without the other. Organisations managing and supervising the forest resource must have a robust management system and motivated staff. Forest management needs to be based on reliable and transparent information on the forest resource and best practice of forest management planning. Both long-term strategic planning as well as annual operational planning must be considered. Forest certification and chain-of-custody certification are useful tools to assure good management and good governance and to convey information on good practices to consumers and other clients.
National FLEG action plans
National FLEG Action Plans (or Action Plans to control illegal logging) have been identified as a tool to identify root causes for illegalities, bring the issues to political debate, and to mobilise stakeholders to act for a change. Indufor has been involved in preparing the Guidelines for National Action Plans, and applying the guidelines in several countries.
Voluntary partnership agreements
The European Community policy regarding illegal logging and related trade was set out in the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, which includes a number of measures to ensure that timber and wood products imported into the EU have been legally harvested or manufactured from legally harvested timber. One of the key measures proposed by the Action Plan is a licensing scheme for the prevention of illegal logging and related trade coming into the European Union. The licensing scheme would be implemented as part of the Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs), which are being negotiated with a number of countries. Additional measures are also considered.
| Contact: | Tapani Oksanen |
Our services:
- Participatory and traditional forest resource inventories and resource monitoring
- Participatory forest management planning and annual operational planning
- Forest certification
- Chain-of-custody certification
- Advice on institutional change processes improving governance and transparency
- Change management in forestry organisations
- Analytical studies on present situation and root causes of illegal acts
- Facilitating the process of formulating National FLEG Action Plans
- Designing response strategies and prioritised remedial actions
- Facilitating political debate and information campaigns
- Technical advice and support to national VPA processes, including negotiations
- Facilitation of stakeholder participation, dialogue and consultations
- Advice on the definition of legality of timber
- Advice on designing systems for verification of legality and chain of custody
- Facilitation of independent monitoring of the system
- Co-ordination support
- Support to implementation
- Impact assessment