Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 1 • 19th January 2007
EU, Indonesia Collaborate to Prevent Illegal Logging
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The EU and Indonesia have agreed to start negations on creating a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) that would ensure that EU timber imports from Indonesia have been legally harvested.
The VPA will be negotiated under the European Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programme, which was established as a follow-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development to improve developing country capacity to control illegal logging and reduce trade in illegal timber. The purpose of the VPA is to contribute to sustainable forest management, and it includes measures such as a timber licensing scheme.
The tropical forest in Borneo - shared by Malaysia and Indonesia - is the habitat of more than 75 percent of the world’s orang-utan population, which has been exponentially declining in the past 20 years. Illegal logging is the main driver of the decline. Deforestation also leads to landslides that occur after heavy rains in Indonesia. Indonesia lost 28 million hectares of forest between 1990 and 2005.
The EU has already started negotiations on a VPA with Malaysia (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 6 October 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/06-10-06/inbrief.htm). Indonesia also recently signed an agreement with the US to cooperate to prevent illegal logging.
“EU, Indonesia Target Illegal Logging Pact,” REUTERS, 10 January 2007; “Indonesia timber deal struck,” GREEN CONSUMER GUIDE, 11January 2007; “Natural Disasters or Mass Murders,” WORLDPRESS.ORG, 16 January 2007; “U.S.,Indonesia Agree to Target Illegal Logging,” ENS, 20 November 2006.
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