Please consult the report-flegt-eval-annexes1-6_en.pdf : and  report-flegt-evaluation.pdf 

(Brussels) May 4, 2016 – As the European Commission releases a review of its flagship forest policy, new evidence from social and environmental justice NGO Fern shows the benefits it is bringing in many tropical forested countries.

The independent review of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, released by the EC today, highlights the scheme’s successes as well as areas ripe for improvement, calling it “fully relevant… innovative, comprehensive and future proof”, while stating that it needs to “address new challenges in particular with regard to deforestation and conversion timber”.

Fern’s research, also released today, reveals that all the countries that have signed trade deals - so-called Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) - with the European Union under FLEGT, have shown clear improvements in the way their forests are owned and managed.

“Forest communities in some of the most deprived countries on earth, including Liberia and the Central African Republic, are seeing financial and other benefits from their forests, often for the first time. Democratic space is opening up and civil society and forest communities are helping shape more just forest laws,” said Lindsay Duffield, a Fern campaign co-ordinator and author of today’s report Do FLEGT VPAs improve governance?^[2]

 “FLEGT is the most innovative international attempt so far to protect tropical forests and stop illegal logging, and this review should be a catalyst for strengthening it. We echo the review’s recommendation that it addresses new challenges, in particular by urgently tackling the problem of conversion timber,” she said.

For more Information, please consult the following PDF Documents: