Bangui (Central African Republic (CAR)), 21^st December 2010 – The CAR signed the Voluntary Partnership Agreement Forest Law Enforcement on Governance and Trade (FLEGT VPA) with the European Union (EU). This major step will henceforth help promote legal timber trade and a sound management of the forest sector, and more especially to safeguard income generated by the exportation of timber into the European Union.

CAR and EU launched FLEGT VPA negotiations in 2009 after the preparation of a national consensus on the opportunity to conclude a FLEGT agreement. This continued throughout 2010. The Central African side, through CAR FEGT National Coordination Committee, benefited from the technical and financial support of COMIFAC, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the European Forests Institute (EFI) and the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement). The CAR is the fourth African country and the third in the Congo Basin to undergo this process after Ghana in September 2008, the Republic of Congo in May 2009 and the Republic of Cameroon in May 2010. The CAR immediately decided to implement a Legality Verification System (LVS) which shall guarantee that only timber exploited following legal and regulatory requirements is exported. In order to ensure the success of this process, the EU agrees on her side to mobilize the necessary means in order to support the technical capacity building of bodies involved in the verification of the legality of wood products and traceability, and According to the calendar of the agreement, several measures shall be taken by the CAR to effect the commitment taken. During the preparatory phase before FLEGT authorizations are issued, measures shall be taken to consolidate the legal, regulatory and institutional framework. This concerns for instance laws on land matters which clarify the rights of use of communities, laws on common ownership, as well as the designing of protocols and procedures. The CAR shall establish further regulations concerning plantations, small farms, community forests and new administrative bodies in charge of legality and traceability control.

The monitoring/evaluation of this commitment between the two parties shall be done through a joint implementation committee including representatives of both parties.

To learn more about this article, please read the press review and information note of December 2010 on FLEGT VPA in CAR.

In the press: 

Bangui, (CAR) 1^st February 2011- Minister of Water, Forests, Animals and Fisheries: Workshop for the launching of the capacity building programme for the private sector within the FLEGT process: It was intended to build the capacities of actors in the private forest sector, to help implement the VPA, to build the capacities of technical staff in order to set up a framework for the implementation of the VPA, to sensitize participants on the project and to popularize the Agreement among partners under the FLEGT action plan: To learn more, please click HERE

Signing of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement Between the CAR and the European Union: Bangui, 21 Dec. (ACAP) – Le Premier Minister, Prof. Faustin Archange Touadéra and the Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation, Guy Samzun, signed a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) - Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) between the Central African Republic and the European Union on Tuesday 21^st December 2010, at the Benches of the National Assembly in Bangui. To learn more, please klick HERE

Information Note 

Information Note (December 2010): FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the Central African Republic and the European Union: To promote together legal timber trade and the good management of the forest sector: To learn more,

Picture: The presidium (from left to right) with the Head of the EU Delegation and the CAR Prime Minister @ http://www.acap-cf.info