FLEGT Action Plan & related EU policies

6th ASEAN FLEGT Timber Legality Assurance System workshop 3-5 July 2018, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Michael Bucki, Luca Perez, European External Action Service, , DG ENV [email protected] [email protected] 1. FLEGT Action Plan: follow-up to evaluation and next steps

2. EU Timber Regulation: state of play

3. Experience from licensing in The EU FLEGT Action Plan (2003) in a nutshell Package of measure to combat and related trade focusing on:  Support to timber producing countries: governance, capacity building, legality verification  Promoting trade in legal timber: Voluntary Partnership Agreements & EU Timber Regulation  PPP, private sector initiatives, financing & investment  International cooperation, existing legislation (e.g. CITES, anti- money laundering, CSR), conflict timber FLEGT AP evaluations (2015-2016)

Brief background • Court of Auditors' audit on FLEGT development support, • Independent evaluation of the FLEGT AP and • EUTR review

Main conclusions • Innovative, highly relevant and strongly supported • Sustainable changes at global, EU and partner country levels • Significant achievements in its main areas, BUT several areas for improvements FLEGT AP evaluations (2015-2016) Main recommendations • Adapt to evolving context, e.g. changes in trade • Further action required to address deforestation, e.g. conversion • Improve efficiency & effectiveness: wise use of resources, results- oriented management, strengthened planning, improved monitoring & reporting, enhanced communication • Strengthen implementation & enforcement of EUTR • VPAs: prioritization needed, focus on successful conclusion and implementation of existing progressing, better adapt to country context and capacity, consider alternative way forward when VPA not feasible Next steps

• Multi-year Work plan for 2018-22 with clear objectives, actions and milestones (cf. "Conference on Tackling illegal logging and deforestation: challenges and opportunities", Brussels 22-24 June 2017) – to be published shortly

• Comprehensive set of impact indicators for the FLEGT Action Plan at the global level under development (by CIFOR)

• Options to step up EU action on deforestation under consideration Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs)

Aim: forest governance, law enforcement, systems to assure the legality of the timber through FLEGT licencing scheme

Concluded with: • • Congo • • (close to start of licensing) • • Vietnam (ratification on-going, joint implementation framework agreed to prepare for implementation, new forest law includes key VPA provisions) • Indonesia (1st country to start FLEGT licensing in 2016 – JIC March 2018 - 1st periodic evaluation and 2018 Joint work plan to be published soon) • Honduras agreement initialed in June 2018 VPA Negotiation

Laos

Thailand

Guyana

Cote d'Ivoire

Gabon DRC EU Timber Regulation - Key obligations

EU operators shall exercise due diligence when placing timber or Due timber products on the market by implementing procedures so as to diligence minimise the risk of illegal timber in their supply chain

The placing on the market of illegally harvested timber or timber Prohibition products derived from such timber shall be prohibited

EU traders (after first placing on the EU market) shall be able to Traceability identify from whom they bought the timber products and where applicable, to whom they have supplied the timber products EUTR implementation and enforcement

• Significant progress in application: EUTR Competent Authorities are performing checks and taking action when faced with EUTR breaches.

• Checks are carried out by Member States according to plans that are based on risk criteria. Checks are performed both for timber harvested in EU Member States and imported timber.

• The Commission monitors and facilitates enforcement by, and firmly takes action to address non-compliance or insufficient implementation by the EU Member States (e.g. RO, BE). 10 EUTR implementation and enforcement Over the period March 2015 to February 2017, 2704 checks were conducted relating to imported timber. Resulting enforcement action included the following: • 525 notices of remedial action (19% of checks) • 139 penalties (5% of checks) • 286 other measures (11% of checks) • 6 court cases concluded (more ongoing)

11 EUTR implementation and enforcement Examples of enforcement cases (2017): • The Dutch Competent Authority successfully brought to court a Dutch operator who imported timber from a Cameroonian sawmill found to be dealing in illegally harvested timber. • A German court ruled that two shipments of ‘wenge’ were imported into Germany from DRC, via Belgium, in contravention of EUTR. • The UK Competent Authority issued notices of remedial action to two UK operators importing timber from Myanmar. • Several sanctions in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, and UK, for imports from Myanmar12 Support to enforcement/implementation

• Guidance documents • IT platform for exchange of information (reports, articles, etc.) • Meetings of EUTR Expert Group every two months: exchange of views on due diligence exercise, risks assessments, specific cases and risks identified for relevant timber species/countries, development of guidelines for harmonized approach. • Bi-monthly briefings, 6-monthly overview of checks

• Analyses of trade data, private sector best practices, etc.13 Support to enforcement/implementation Country overviews by UNEP-WCMC: • Overviews for China, Brazil, Myanmar, Russia, Ukraine are near final. • Overviews for Malaysia, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Bosnia Herzegovina and Belarus under preparations • Country overviews include key statistics (e.g. forest area, species in trade, risk indices) - Overview of legal trade, main areas of risk - Information on legislation, sample documents, key reports • Peer reviewed by CAs, EU Delegations and relevant experts Experience after 18 months of FLEGT licensing in Indonesia • Positive reception on EU market (IMM surveys) • Positive signs on the market, but too early for conclusions • Importance of "customer-oriented" periodic evaluation, impact monitoring and independent (market) monitoring to build trust and awareness in the FLEGT "brand". • Need for in-depth and frequent technical exchanges as licensing brings new issues to light, and increase scrutiny of all stakeholders. Experience after 18 months of FLEGT licensing in Indonesia (c’ed) • Teething problems (e.g. custom codes interpretation). • Complaints and law enforcement: demonstrate that the system work and that action is taken when violations are identified. More trasparency beneficial • Alignment VPA vs national legislation and system: need for prior consultations on major changes. • Legality of timber imports: need to build a common understanding of « due diligence » between EUTR and partner countries’ systems …. but not only FLEGT Deforestation: the scale of the problem

Progress at global level, but rate of deforestation remains alarmingly high, particularly in tropics (FRA 2015) Deforestation and crops

1000 Ha 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 Soybean Maize Oil Palm Rice, Paddy Sugar cane Sorghum Groundnut Bean, Dry Cocoa Bean Cassava Millet Wheat Natural rubber Seed Cotton Other crops

Sub-Saharan Africa Central America South America

South & East Asia Southeast Asia Rest of World How to step up EU action?

 Feasibility study on a possible AP on Deforestation, implemented by a consortium of consultancy firms

 Terms of Reference available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/pdf/ToR%20- %20Feasibility%20Study%20Deforestation%20final_dec15.pdf

 Three deliverables:  1) a mapping of existing EU policy, legislation and initiative that can address, directly or indirectly, the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation within and outside EU borders.  2) to identify and assess policy options that can address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation at global scale.  3) Stakeholders online survey (for potential follow-up by EC) State of play and next steps

 Preliminary findings presented at a stakeholders conference in June 2017 + written input by stakeholders

 Publication of the final report in March 2018

 Ongoing reflection by the EC on a possible future initiative. If yes, what shape and with which specific content? THANK YOU Questions?