Pact aims to ensure that timber exported to the EU comes from legal sources and that the trade will benefit the Liberian people
DAKAR (TrustLaw) – Liberia and the European Union have signed an agreement aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability and sustainability in the management of the West African country’s timber industry and forests, the European Forest Institute said in a statement on Monday.
The voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) ensures that timber products exported from Liberia to the European bloc are derived from legal sources, can be traced back to the source and that the resulting trade will benefit the Liberian people.
“In the past, Liberia’s natural resources have been used to drive conflict and greed that benefitted few and destroyed many lives,” Liberian Minister of Agriculture Florence Chenoweth said in a statement.
“Now it is clear that we are committed to ensuring the gifts will benefit all Liberians now and in the future,” she added.
Almost 45 percent of Liberia – about 4.3 million hectares - is covered by tropical forest. Timber exports used to constitute more than 20 percent of the country’s GDP, but rampant corruption and illegal logging during the country’s 14-year civil war pushed the United Nations to impose sanctions on imports of timber from the country between 2003 and 2006.
The World Bank estimates that corruption and illegal concessions in the timber industry may have cost the Liberian state as much as half the entire country’s budget during the rule of former President Charles Taylor – with companies having possibly evaded over $200 million in tax payments to the government.
The VPAs are part of the European Union’s 2003 action plan on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT), a programme to control illegal logging by improving governance in the forestry sector and strengthening the role of civil society. It recognises the role of EU demand for timber products in driving illicit timber sales.
A new European regulation to be implemented from March 2013 will require all companies placing timber on the EU market to demonstrate that they are purchasing legally harvested wood. Through the VPA, Liberia will be issuing FLEGT licences which meet this requirement.
“This decision (VPA) will contribute to sustainable development and poverty alleviation in Liberia on the one hand, and will benefit the European consumers because they can be sure that Liberian wood is from a legal origin,” EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said in a statement.
Analysts say the pact will help in the implementation of existing Liberian regulation on how forest concessions are granted to companies as well as improve transparency in the monitoring of these deals by local communities.
“It would bring about a lot of benefit to the local communities in the forest because the money from the forestry sector will be more equally distributed and people can see and check what’s going on,” said Siskia Ozinga, campaigns manager of FERN, a non-governmental organisation which keeps track of the European Union’s involvement in forests.
She said legally binding agreements to protect forests were also very helpful in guarding against climate change.
“Forest loss contributes 20 percent to climate change so we need to keep the forest standing to address climate change, but we also want to allow sustainable use of forest products and the condition for that to happen is improved forest governance,” Ozinga told AlertNet on the phone from London.
Liberia is the sixth country to sign a VPA with the European Union, following Ghana, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Indonesia. The pacts now cover a forest area of 168 million hectares - home to 100 million forest peoples.
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