Briefing note 6 final
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Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) are agreements between the EU and timber-producing countries to help eliminate illegal logging. Under a VPA, a country agrees to develop a licensing system to verify legally harvested timber and improve forest governance. The VPA will cover establishing verification of legal timber, improving transparency, and building systems to issue export licenses. A joint committee oversees each VPA's implementation and progress. VPAs aim to improve forest management over time through capacity building and reforms supported by the EU.
Briefing note 6 final
- 1. Briefing Note Number 06 FLEGT Briefing Notes FOREST LAW ENFORECMENT, GOVERNANCE AND TRADE Voluntary Partnership Agreements ProForest Series 2007 1 What are Voluntary Partnership Agreements? The EU FLEGT Action Plan recognises that, as a signifi-cant consumer of wood products, the EU shares respon-sibility with timber-producing countries to tackle illegal logging and its associated trade. However, there is cur-rently no practical mechanism for identifying and ex-cluding illegal timber from the EU market. The FLEGT Action Plan therefore proposes the develop-ment of Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) be-tween the EU and individual timber-producing countries (FLEGT Partner Countries). These agreements are de-signed ultimately to eliminate illegally-produced timber from a Partner Country’s international and domestic trade. A VPA is a binding agreement between the EU and a Partner Country by which the EU and the Partner Coun-try undertake to work together to support the aims of the FLEGT Action Plan and to implement a timber licens-ing scheme. To enable this, a new European Regulation on the implementation of the FLEGT licensing scheme has been adopted1. 2 What do VPAs cover? VPAs aim to contribute to timber-producing countries’ commitments to promote sustainable forest manage-ment by supporting improvement in forest law enforce-ment and governance. One element common to all agreements will be that Partner Countries have, or be committed to developing, credible legal and administrative structures and techni-cal systems to verify that timber is produced in accord-ance with national laws. This implies: • A commitment to ensure that the applicable forest law is consistent, understandable and enforceable and promotes sustainable forest management; • Developing technical and administrative systems to monitor logging operations and identify and track tim-ber from the point of harvest to the market or point of export; • A commitment to improve transparency and account-ability in forest governance; • Building checks and balances into the tracking and licensing system, including the implementation of an independent monitoring system; • Developing procedures to licence the export of le-gally harvested timber. The titles of the seven briefing notes in this series are: 1. What is FLEGT? 2. What is legal timber? 3. A timber legality assurance system 4. Control of the supply chain: Wood tracing systems and chain of custody 5. Legality assurance systems: requirements for verification 6. Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) 7. Guidelines for independent monitoring However VPAs also need to recognise that conditions af-fecting forest governance and law enforcement in Partner Countries differ. In each country, a VPA will need to take account of factors such as national forest governance is-sues, forest-related legislation, the nature of forest and land rights, the nature of timber trade, current forest sector ini-tiatives and the capacity to implement agreements. Key elements to consider in designing and implementing VPAs are likely to include: • Social safeguards – VPAs should seek to minimise ad-verse impacts on local communities and poor people by taking account of indigenous and local communities’ live-lihoods associated with forests. Partner Countries will also be encouraged to link FLEGT issues to their poverty reduction strategies and to monitor the impacts of VPAs on poverty; • Stakeholder involvement – Provision should be made for regular consultation with stakeholders during the de-sign and implementation of VPAs. This should include ways to involve the private sector in efforts to combat illegal logging but should also ensure that any require-ments imposed are not an undue burden on small-scale producers. In some Partner Countries, meeting these commitments will require considerable institutional strengthening and capac-ity building. VPAs should identify areas in which there is a need for technical and financial assistance. Any assistance will be directed towards promoting legality in the forest sector, as a fundamental step towards achieving sustain-able forest management. Likely areas of focus will include: • Assistance with undertaking legislative and regulatory reforms, where needed • Assistance to develop systems to verify that timber has page 01
- 2. Briefing Note Number 06 ProForest Series 2007 been harvested legally • Capacity building for Partner Country governments and civil society • Seeking just and equitable solutions to illegal logging which minimise adverse impacts on forest-dependent communities • Strengthening existing institutions and institution build-ing • Support for policy, legislative and regulatory reform in the forest sector. 3 Developing a Voluntary Partner-ship Agreement Negotiation and effectiveness of the Agreement Voluntary Partnership Agreements are initiated by infor-mal discussions between the EU and prospective Partner Countries, generally undertaken by the European Commis-sion and one or more Member States. These aim to ensure that stakeholders in the country have a good understand-ing of the aims of a VPA and the mechanisms for its imple-mentation. It also helps the EU gain an understanding of forest sector issues in the country that need to be ad-dressed in designing a VPA. A prospective Partner Coun-try notifies the European Commission when it is ready for formal negotiations. Negotiation of an agreement will focus on issues of impor-tance to forest law enforcement and governance in the Partner Country. The negotiation process may take sev-eral months. A VPA will come into force when the negotiation process has been concluded and the administrative requirements of each party (e.g. ratification) have been completed. The Joint Implementation Committee A Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) made up of repre-sentatives of the Partner Country, the European Commis-sion and Member States will be established to oversee implementation of each VPA. It will be responsible for en-suring that discussion between the EU and the Partner Country is regular and effective. It will facilitate, monitor and supervise the implementation of the Partnership Agreement and mediate and resolve any conflicts and disputes that arise. The JIC’s tasks will include: • Deciding on the timing of the effectiveness of the licensing scheme; • Monitoring and reviewing overall progress of imple-mentation of the Partnership Agreement; • Reviewing reports from the Independent Monitor and complaints about the operation of the licensing scheme; • Mediating and working to resolve conflicts relating to the Agreement and the licensing scheme. Planning and Implementation Each VPA should include a detailed plan that sets out clearly defined, time-bound actions for improving forest sector governance and implementing the licensing scheme. It may be some time after a VPA comes into force before the operation of a licensing scheme becomes effective as there may be a need to develop or strengthen the Legality Assurance System. When a Partner Country con-siders its Legality Assurance System has met all the re-quirements it will notify the EU, via the JIC. Upon confirming this, the European Commission will add the Partner Country, and any additional products to be covered by the licensing scheme, to the Appendices of the EU FLEGT Regulation. From this point, all applicable products exported from the Partner Country to the EU will require a FLEGT licence. Scope of Partnership Agreements The licensing scheme will initially cover a limited range of solid wood products (i.e., logs, sawnwood, veneers and plywood). However, each VPA will include provision to extend the scope to other product categories, where this is beneficial for the Partner Country. page 02 ProForest
- 3. Briefing Note Number 06 FLEGT Briefing Notes FOREST LAW ENFORECMENT, GOVERNANCE AND TRADE Voluntary Partnership Agreements ProForest Series 2007 Reviews and Reporting Annual reports on the development and implementa-tion of each VPA will need to be prepared. These re-ports will include details of the achievement of the ob-jectives and agreed time-bound actions as well as progress on eliminating illegal timber exported to non- EU markets and sold in the domestic market. When a FLEGT licensing scheme is operational, details should also be provided of the number of FLEGT licenses is-sued and the quantities of timber products exported to the EU. Each VPA should include provision for review of its ef-fectiveness and impact. The first review should be car-ried out no later than two years after a VPA starts, al-though additional reviews may be called for when is-sues with implementation arise. Duration of Partnership Agreements Once in effect, Partnership Agreements will remain in force until either the EC or the Partner Country informs the other of their intention to withdraw, with advance notice of one year. Where any review identifies serious failures in the implementation of the Partnership Agree-ment and these are not rectified within a mutually agreed timeframe, the Agreement can be suspended, with the re-sult that the Partner Country will revert to non-partner sta-tus. 4 What advantages for FLEGT Part-ner Countries? Implementing the VPAs and the licensing scheme will re-quire capacity building and investment to ensure reliability and credibility. In return, there are advantages for Partner Countries. These include: • Political and financial reinforcement of Government re-forms aimed at improving forest governance; • Improved access to EU markets, as public and private procurement policies increasingly specify the use of le-gal timber and the exclusion of unidentified or illegal timber, since all imports to the EU will be considered legal; • Increased revenue from taxes and duties which, in some cases, may exceed the costs associated with running the licensing system; • Increased revenue to finance poverty reduction and com-munity development programmes; • Priority for EU development assistance for FLEGT-related measures; • Additional enforcement tools to combat illegal activities; • A foundation framework for which will facilitate private operators to progress to certification of sustainable for-est management; • Improved international reputation for Governments’ com-mitment to good governance. Trade with countries that choose not to enter into VPAs will be unaffected. However, as purchasers increasingly adopt policies favouring procurement of verified legal timber, coun-tries which have problems with illegal logging and which choose not to enter into VPAs may find their market share in the EU reduced. (Endnotes) 1 EC Regulation No 2173/2005 On the establishment of a FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community ProForest page 03 FLEGT Briefing Notes are prepared by an expert group convened by the European Commission and are intended to inform discussion of the EU FLEGT Action Plan. They do not reflect official posi-tions. They are intended to provide useful information for potential FLEGT Partner countries and others with an interest in the initiative. (March 2007)