This document provides an overview and summary of the key components of the EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. It discusses: 1) The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) process between the EU and timber exporting countries to ensure trade in only legal timber. 2) The EU Timber Regulation which requires due diligence to prevent illegal timber imports. 3) Public procurement policies in EU countries that promote legal and sustainable timber. The components reinforce each other with FLEGT licenses serving as proof of legality under the Timber Regulation. VPAs improve governance while policies and regulations incentivize legally produced timber and encourage VPA participation.

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2. EU Timber Regulation Training of Trainers
FLEGT Action Plan: how different components are interlinked
2

3. FLEGT Key Components
1. Support to producer countries
2. Support for private sector initiatives
3. Investment safeguards
4. Addressing the problem of conflict timber
5. Activities to promote trade in legal timber
• Voluntary Partnership Agreements
6. Additional options for legislation
• EU Timber Regulation (due diligence)
7. Public timber procurement policies
3

4. • An EU Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) is a
legally binding agreement between the EU and an
individual timber exporting country, which aims to
ensure trade only in legal timber and to improve forest
governance.
• VPA process includes guidance on legality definition
 Every country has a sovereign right to define legality
 The process to define legality is based on
stakeholder involvement and consensus
 Has to cover certain key elements
Voluntary Partnership Agreements
4

5. FLEGT VPA progress
A Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) has been signed by:
• Ghana (November 2009)
• The Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville) (May 2010)
• Cameroon (October 2010)
• Central African Republic (November 2011)
• Indonesia (signature foreseen 2nd half of 2013)
• Liberia (July 2011)
Negotiations for future agreements are currently being conducted with Malaysia,
Vietnam, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guyana, Honduras, Côte d’Ivoire,
Thailand and Laos
No FLEGT-licensed timber is available yet
5

6. 6
VPA progress
Source: http://www.euflegt.efi.int/vpa-countries;
As of January 2015

7. FLEGT timber licensing scheme
• Core component of VPA, also referred to as
Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS)
• Five main elements:
 Definition of legality (forest to port)
 Control of the supply chain (traceability)
 Verification (forest and supply chain)
 Issuance of licences (FLEGT licences)
 Independent monitoring
7

8. Relative impact of implementing
sustainable forest management at a few
forest management units (FMU) versus
implementing the aspects of sustainability
required by a range of laws identified at a
VPA at national level.
8
Schematic representation of
implementing FMU vs VPA process

9. FLEGT Key Components
1. Support to Producer Countries
2. Support for Private Sector Initiatives
3. Investment safeguards
4. Addressing the problem of conflict timber
5. Activities to promote trade in legal timber
• Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs)
6. Additional options for legislation
• EU Timber Regulation (due diligence)
7. Public Timber Procurement Policies
9

10. Compliance with the regulation
• The EU Timber Regulation does not endorse
particular legality or forest certification schemes,
though risk assessment criteria may include third
party verification
 The EU TR mentions: ‘assurance of compliance with
applicable legislation, which may include certification or
other third-party-verified schemes which cover compliance
with applicable legislation’
• Only timber and timber products with a FLEGT licence
or a CITES permit automatically comply with the EU
Timber Regulation
10

11. FLEGT key components
1. Support to producer countries
2. Support for private sector Initiatives
3. Investment safeguards
4. Addressing the problem of conflict timber
5. Activities to promote trade in legal timber
• Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs)
6. Additional options for legislation
• EU Timber Regulation (due diligence)
7. Public timber procurement policies
11

12. Public procurement policies
Public procurement policy for timber
Some Green Public Procurement (GPP)
Product based requirements for timber in place
or under development
The major EU importing
countries have policies in place
(except Spain and Italy)
Source: EU Market conditions for ‘verified legal’ and.., Oliver (2009)
12

13. Evidence of compliance with public procurement policies
FR DE BE NL UK DK
Current requirement Sustainability
Legal,
Sust.
Pref.
Forest certification
schemes accepted as
ensuring sustainability
FSC®
+PEFC
FSC®
+PEFC
FSC®
+PEFC
FSC®+
PEFC1
FSC®
+PEFC
FSC®
+PEFC
FLEGT licence YES NO NO YES YES YES
Alternative evidence/the
‘or equivalent’ to meeting
the requirements
Limited
guidance
No
guidance
No
guidance
Detailed
guidance
Detailed
guidance
Some
guidance
1. National schemes relevant for NL market assessed. So far assessed PEFC Finland, PEFC Sweden, PEFC
Belgium, PEFC Austria, and are found to be compliance. 13

14. Summary
• Different components of FLEGT Action Plan are
interlinked
• VPA and EU TR reinforce each other: FLEGT
licence is proof of legality under EU TR
• VPA: improve governance, supply side
• Public procurement policies and EU TR: demand
side approach
 Create incentives for legally (and sustainably)
produced timber
 Create incentives for countries to join VPA
14

15. All omissions, inaccuracies or views expressed in this document do not necessarily
represent the views of BMZ. Furthermore changes may have been made to the original
material by the conductors of this training.
The material is available for download at http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/public-
flegt/documents?gterm[0]=2144.
The development of this training material was financed by the
German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)