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VPAs update FW2017_final

The FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) Action Plan remains a critical part of tackling  illegal logging and improving the lives of forest communities, according to the  EU’s Council Conclusions  - published in June 2016.

One of the Action Plan’s great strengths, as the EU acknowledged, lies in the innovative trade deals it promotes between timber producing countries and the EU, known as Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs).

Uniquely, these agreements combine demand and supply-side measures in a mutually reinforcing way. They use trade as leverage to encourage the inclusion of civil society and forest communities in the crafting of new and more just laws, thus shifting the balance of power in countries where illegal forest destruction is occurring.

The EU Council stressed that VPAs have proved a valuable instrument in promoting and improving forest

governance, especially through establishing effective multi-stakeholder participation processes, clarifying legal frameworks, introducing policy reforms, increasing transparency and accountability, and raising awareness. Fern, which works on the ground with partners in seven countries who are either implementing or in the process of signing VPAs, has seen examples of all of these benefits first hand. In over 20 years of working on the issue, we have never seen an EU forest policy or programme which has had similar far-reaching positive impacts.

Please download the Document here below: