The EU Timber Operators' Perceptions of FLEGT Action Plan with Focus on EUTR

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The EU Timber Operators' Perceptions of FLEGT Action Plan with Focus on EUTR The EU timber operators’ perceptions of FLEGT Action Plan with focus on EUTR Master’s Thesis for the examination of Master of Science (Agr. & For.) Forest Product Marketing Nam Phuong Hoang May 2013 Fakultet/Sektion –Faculty – Department Department of Forest Sciences Faculty of Agriculture and Fores – Author NamPhuong Hoang – Title The EU timber operators’ perceptions of FLEGT Action Plan with focus on EUTR – Subject Forest Product Marketing – Level – Month and year – Number of pages Master’s Thesis May 2013 107 + appendices – Abstract Illegal logging has become one of the most prominent issues in the last few decades. It causes environmental damage, lost in government revenue from timber production as well as promotes negative social issues such as corruption, conflict, etc. Various efforts such as enhance forest law enforcement, logs banned, public procurement policies, etc., have been propose by both consuming and producing countries. FLEGT Action Plan introduced by European Union in 2003 is the Union attempts to minimise illegal logging by exclude illegal timber product from EU’s market together with enhance and support the law enforcement as well as governance in producing countries. The purpose of this study is to provide useful information concerning operators’ perception of FLEGT issues. The main question of the study is: “What are the EU timber operators’ perceptions concerning FLEGT and EUTR?” Quantitative method is applied to the study. Data for the study is obtain through various channels, including online survey, distribution of questionnaire in conference and calling session. The result shows that operators are aware of negative effects of illegal logging and they believe that company needs to have good environmental image. Operators also support strict policy measure to be implemented in order to prevent illegal timber trade. However, they are reluctant to cope with the constraints cause by these policies. Operators acknowledge the benefit FLEGT Action Plan and EUTR create such as improve forest governance for producing countries, preventing illegal timber entering EU market. However, they still have doubt on the ability to prevent illegal logging of FLEGT Action Plan as well as the benefit EUTR able to offer both operators and the supplying countries. Furthermore, the result of this study also shows that the operators might have negative attitude toward EUTR since their perceived sacrifice on EUTR is dominated over the perceived benefits. This negative attitude can be caused by the incomprehension on FLEGT issues. The operators might gain positive attitude toward FLEGT issues once they truly understand the long term goal of FLEGT Action Plan. Finally, it is important to have an effective communication strategy which would help operators comprehend FLEGT issues so they would be able to have appropriate perception toward FLEGT Action Plan in general and EUTR in particular. Avainsanat – Nyckelord – Keywords Illegal logging, FLEGT Action Plan, Perception Säilytyspaikka – Förvaringställe – Where deposited The University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences Muita tietoja – Övriga uppgifter – Additional information ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my great gratitude to my professor Anne Toppinen from the Department of Forest Sciences at the University of Helsinki for her support and instruction. Thank you for your wise advices and guidance throughout the study. I am also thankful to Dr. Ibrahim M. Favada, my supervisor at EFI Central European Regional Office and the Observatory for European Forests (EFICENT – OEF), Nancy. Thank you for your instruction, comment, advice and support during the time we work together. I would like to thank and acknowledge OEF team who has made my stay in Nancy very productive and enjoying. I would also like to thank Mr Tomi Tuomasjukka, Mr. Ed Pepke and Mr. Jo Van Brusselen from EU FLEGT Facility for the information, instruction, constructive discussion and very helpful comments during my study. I would like to give my special thanks to Mr Anand Punja from the UK Timber Trade Federation, Le Commerce du Bois, Danish Timber Trade Federation, The Spanish Timber Importers’ Association and the European Timber Trade Federation for the cooperation and support in distributing and advertising the questionnaire amongst the Federations’/Associations’ members. I am also deeply thankful to Dr. Ashley Selby, former researcher at Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla). Thank you for being my teacher, my tutor and my great friend. Completing this study would have been far more difficult without your support and encouragement. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family. Without them I will not be here today. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Objectives and study question .......................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Defined scope of the study ................................................................................................................ 4 2 Illegal Logging ............................................................................................................................................ 4 2.1 Overview on Illegal Logging ............................................................................................................... 4 2.2 The causes of illegal logging .............................................................................................................. 6 2.3 Producing countries ........................................................................................................................... 9 2.4 Importing countries ......................................................................................................................... 15 3 Controlling illegal logging ........................................................................................................................ 19 3.1 Consumer-Country measures .......................................................................................................... 19 3.2 FLEGT Action Plan ............................................................................................................................ 20 3.2.1 Public procurement ................................................................................................................. 20 3.2.2 Voluntary Partnership Agreements ......................................................................................... 22 3.2.3 EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) .................................................................................................. 26 4 Theoretical background of the study ...................................................................................................... 29 4.1 AIUAPR purchasing decision model ................................................................................................. 29 4.1.1 Awareness ............................................................................................................................... 30 4.1.2 Interest/Understanding of the products or/and services and brand ...................................... 32 4.1.3 Perception ............................................................................................................................... 34 4.1.4 Attitude .................................................................................................................................... 38 4.2 Theory of Planned Behaviour .......................................................................................................... 42 4.3 Theoretical framework of the study ................................................................................................ 45 5 Data and data analysis of the study ........................................................................................................ 47 5.1 Data of the study ............................................................................................................................. 47 5.1.1 Population and sample ............................................................................................................ 47 5.1.2 Collection of primary data ....................................................................................................... 47 5.2 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 49 6 Results ..................................................................................................................................................... 53 6.1 Background information .................................................................................................................. 53 6.1.1 General Characteristics ............................................................................................................ 53 6.1.2 Operators’ Awareness, Knowledge & Understanding ............................................................. 58 6.2 Perception, Attitude and Intention of Operators ............................................................................ 63 6.2.1 Perception ..............................................................................................................................
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