Legal Timber investigates a topical issue in international forest policy: how to verify the legality of traded timber in ways that will satisfy both the commercial interests of producer states and the social and environmental concerns of civil society and consumers. LE This seemingly straightforward and technical matter proves, on investigation, to be complex and political. It addresses a critical interface in international relations where the sovereign rights of producer states are set against the role of forests as GAL important public goods. It relates to a topic — illegal logging — that has been at the forefront of a movement in which private actors are playing increasingly important roles in forest sector reform. TIM Legal Timber presents the findings of the VERIFOR project, an applied research collaboration involving partners in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Drawing on case studies from five continents, the book investigates the ways in which questions of forest management illuminate much wider processes of governance reform. B This book will be of interest to all those working on forest governance and E the management of extractive resources, trade certification and labelling, R environmental activism, and participatory development. LEGAL TIMBER in the Forest Sector in the Forest and Governance Verification Verification and Governance in the Forest Sector David Brown, Kate Schreckenberg, Neil Bird, Paolo Cerutti, Filippo Del Gatto, Chimere Diaw, Tim Fomété, Cecilia Luttrell, Guillermo Navarro, Rob Oberndorf, Hans Thiel, Adrian Wells Legal Timber Verification and Governance in the Forest Sector Legal Timber Verification and Governance in the Forest Sector David Brown, Kate Schreckenberg, Neil Bird, Paolo Cerutti, Filippo Del Gatto, Chimere Diaw, Tim Fomété, Cecilia Luttrell, Guillermo Navarro, Rob Oberndorf, Hans Thiel, Adrian Wells A CIP Publication data record may be obtained from the British Library ISBN 978-0-85003-889-7 Published by the Overseas Development Institute 111 Westminster Bridge Road London SE1 7JD All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor stored electronically without the written permission of the publisher. Cover photos © FAO/Roberto Faidutti/ CFU000538 (front cover lower left) © Panos Pictures/Gerd Ludwig (front cover main image) © Panos Pictures/Natalie Behring (cover lower centre) © Panos Pictures/Fred Hoogervorst (back cover) © ODI (front cover lower right) Designed and typeset by Miller Design. Printed by Russell Press. Text printed on Take 2 Print – 100% recycled from post-consumer waste, chlorine free process with no optical bleaching agents. Cover printed on Take 2 Silk – 75% recycled pulp, 25% FSC certified pulp. Table of Contents v Contents List of tables, figures and boxes vii List of abbreviations and acronyms x Acknowledgements xiii Main contributors xiv Foreword xvi Preface xvii Part A Introduction to verification Chapter 1 The evolution of policy on illegal logging 3 Chapter 2 Forest verification – an emerging discipline 13 Chapter 3 Learning from extra-sectoral experience 25 Part B Country case studies of forest verification Chapter 4 Preview of issues examined in the country case studies 51 Chapter 5 The Forest Practices Board of British Columbia 75 Chapter 6 The evolution of the forest control system in Costa Rica 85 Chapter 7 The national forest control system of Honduras 95 Chapter 8 Forest verification in Nicaragua 105 Chapter 9 Forest law compliance within the Brazilian forest governance system 115 Chapter 10 Ecuador’s Outsourced National Forest Control System 125 Chapter 11 The forest verification system in Cameroon 135 Chapter 12 Ghana: tackling governance reform through system design 147 Chapter 13 The experience of independent forest monitoring in Cambodia 155 Chapter 14 The Multi-Sectoral Forest Protection Committees in the Philippines 165 Chapter 15 Verification of legal compliance in Indonesia 173 Chapter 16 Multiple approaches to improving forest control in Malaysia 187 vi Legal Timber: Verification and Governance in the Forest Sector Part C Reviews of cross-cutting issues Chapter 17 Presenting the cross-cutting reviews 215 Chapter 18 Ownership of forest verification systems 219 Chapter 19 The legal basis for forest sector verification systems 227 Chapter 20 Independence in verification work 237 Chapter 21 Developmental impacts of forest sector verification systems 247 Chapter 22 Convergence between forest certification and verification in the drive to legality assurance 255 Chapter 23 New technologies to support improved forest governance 263 Chapter 24 Multi-stakeholder processes: lessons for the process of timber verification 273 Part D Designing effective and equitable forest verification systems Chapter 25 Principles and practice: verification system design in the forest sector 283 Chapter 26 Conclusions: verification of legality and forest governance reform 301 Appendix Policy messages 307 References 313 Index 327 Tables, figures & boxes vii Tables, figures and boxes List of tables 1.1 Estimates of the percentage of selected countries’ timber exports generally recognised as illegal (2006) 10 2.1 Certification and verification compared 22 3.1 Comparison of some extra-sectoral experiences with verification and the situation for timber trade verification 27 4.1 Verification issues addressed by the country case studies 51 4.2 Key drivers for stakeholder involvement in establishing a verification system 55 4.3 Export destinations (2006) for the VERIFOR case study countries, expressed in percentages of their total exports 61 5.1 British Columbia: some key statistics 75 6.1 Costa Rica: some key statistics 85 7.1 Honduras: some key statistics 95 8.1 Nicaragua: some key statistics 105 8.2 Cases investigated by Nicaragua’s State Attorney for the Environment in 2005 112 9.1 Brazil: some key statistics 115 9.2 Verification of forest law compliance in Brazil 122 10.1 Ecuador: some key statistics 125 11.1 Cameroon: some key statistics 135 12.1 Ghana: some key statistics 147 13.1 Cambodia: some key statistics 155 14.1 The Philippines: some key statistics 165 15.1 Indonesia: some key statistics 173 15.2 Key elements of Indonesia’s forest verification system 178 16.1 Malaysia: some key statistics 187 16.2 Summary comparison of forest verification systems in Malaysia 192 17.1 A conceptual matrix for analysing verification system design 216 22.1 Legality and sustainability requirements in the major forest certification schemes 256 22.2 Some key differences between forest certification and verification 258 viii Legal Timber: Verification and Governance in the Forest Sector List of figures 1.1 Area of certified forest (million hectares) 5 1.2 Area certified as percentage of total regional forest cover 5 2.1 Stylised framework of typical national and international forest verification and governance systems 14 4.1 Levels of tropical hardwood exports for the VERIFOR case study countries (2006) 60 4.2 Main destinations for some producer countries exporting tropical hardwood to the EU (2006 data) 61 5.1 Main activities of the British Columbia Forest Practices Board in its first ten years (1995-2004) 78 5.2 Verification in the British Columbia forest sector 80 6.1 Flow of administrative procedures within the Costa Rican forest control system 88 6.2 Flow of control procedures within the Costa Rican forest control system 89 6.3 Cross-checks and sanctioning in Costa Rica’s administrative and verification procedures 90 7.1 Administrative procedures for the approval of Forest Management Plans in Honduras 99 7.2 Administrative procedures for the approval and implementation of Forest Operational Plans in Honduras 100 7.3 Intra- and extra-sectoral actors involved in forestry verification in Honduras 102 8.1 Forest control and verification in Nicaragua 109 8.2 Extra-sectoral forest control and verification in Nicaragua 111 10.1 Basic structure of the SNTCF 128 10.2 Flow of forest control services 130 10.3 System of cross-checks and balances in the SNTCF 131 11.1 Relative importance of Cameroon’s timber export destinations (2005) 137 11.2 Verification actors and functions in Cameroon 140 12.1 The existing forest control system in Ghana 152 12.2 The proposed verification system in Ghana 152 13.1 Structure of the independent monitoring system in Cambodia (1999 to 2003) 158 13.2 Structure of the independent monitoring system in Cambodia (2003 to 2005) 158 14.1 Composition of the MFPCs 167 15.1 Forest verification systems in Indonesia 177 15.2 Timber administration (PUHH) in Indonesia 179 16.1 Timber administration in Permanent Reserved Forests in Peninsular Malaysia 194 16.2 Forest monitoring, audit and compliance in Peninsular Malaysia 196 16.3 Timber administration for SFMLAs in Sabah 199 16.4 Forest monitoring, audit and compliance in Sabah 201 16.5 Standard timber administration in Sarawak 204 16.6 Forest monitoring and audit in Sarawak 206 16.7 Monitoring, verification and tracking of timber imports 208 Tables, figures & boxes ix List of boxes 2.1 Why is the forest sector prone to illegality? 16 2.2 How is illegality in the forest sector manifest? 18 3.1 The Kimberley Process Certification System 30 3.2 The Montreal Protocol 32 3.3 The Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 33 3.4 The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol 35 3.5 Food standards agencies and meat processing 37 3.6 The International Atomic Energy Authority 41 3.7 International election observation