Nine thematic priorities

Based on the EU FLEGT Action Plan, the programme management has established nine thematic areas that are supported through the programme.  Under each theme is an indicative list to demonstrate the range of possible activities that are eligible through the programme.  This is a non-exhaustive list to guide stakeholder groups to focus proposal topics on priority activities.

1.      Capacity building / training

Strengthen the capacity of stakeholder groups to manage new and complex forest sector issues facing developing countries by providing support for the following types of activities:

• Monitor and gather evidence of environmental crime; building legal cases against those who transgress;
• Build understanding of the laws governing the forest sector within the police, the legal profession, public prosecution services and the judiciary;
• Build the public and political support needed to tackle corruption that perpetuates illegal behavior in the forest sector;
• Support actions that improve revenue collection in the forest sector;
• Develop and implement specific training courses and programmes on forest law compliance and governance within the three programme stakeholder groups;
• Elaborate and disseminate relevant training materials;
• Promote exchange of knowledge and experience among relevant educational bodies at sub-regional and regional level;
• Train ministries responsible for forest resources, the judiciary, the other enforcement institutions on international best enforcement systems and practices.

2.      Transparency or Independent Monitoring

Encourage greater access to forest sector information for all stakeholder groups by providing support for the following types of activities:

• Develop independent monitoring and auditing systems to verify the legality of timber;
• Encourage policies of transparency and freedom of information in ACP countries including information on forest concession allocation processes, location and ownership, management plans, and laws and;
• Support technologies such as remote sensing and aerial photography;
• Promote awareness on the benefits of improved information systems among decision-makers;
• Improve forest information systems to enhance collection and reporting of national and sub-national timber harvesting and wood product production data;
• Improve production and trade statistics and market information to facilitate estimation and monitoring of illegal harvesting;
• National surveys and studies on timber flows to identify the extent of illegal logging and associated trade;
• Support knowledge and information availability through web-based information systems, dissemination of lessons learned, and other means of sharing knowledge.

3.      Voluntary Partnership Agreements

Support stakeholders to participate in Voluntary Partnership Agreement processes by providing support for the following types of activities:

• Support national or regional FLEGT/VPA workshops to share information, knowledge and lessons learned within and between ACP countries;
• Carry out feasibility studies on VPA related issues: perform an institutional capacity needs assessments, evaluate timber markets or trade related issues, evaluate national log tracking systems;
• Support national multi-stakeholder committee in charge of VPA negotiation, organisation of stakeholders and planning meetings, etc;
• Support local stakeholders to define timber legality: support stakeholder consultation, organization of technical workshops or working groups, or support field-testing of the definitions.
• Legality Assurance System: Designing or testing legal compliance systems, national forest monitoring, national regulation and control of forest activities, issuance of FLEGT licenses, independent audit etc.
• Improving national law enforcement and patrol systems: improve procedures, capacity to implement procedures, initiate independent monitoring, test innovative systems such as joint forest management monitoring systems etc;
• Assist with LAS implementation: Support priority actions defined by Joint Implementation Committees and independent audit.

 4.      Community based FLEGT initiatives

Support the empowerment of forest dependent groups to develop and participate in forest management systems by providing support for the following types of activities:

• Support community-based forest management for improved livelihoods;
• Promote dissemination of lessons learned from community-based initiatives at the national level;
• Support stakeholders to ensure that key underlying factors, such as land tenure and access to forest resources are protected;
• Encourage local participation in actions aimed at reducing illegal logging;
• Support capacity building of poor forest-dependent communities and small and medium-sized enterprises to produce and trade timber from legal and sustainable sources.

5.      Verification systems

Support the development and implementation of reliable, accurate and cost effective log monitoring systems by providing support for the following types of activities:

• Build or strengthen government institutions, civil society and the private sector ability to develop, implement or manage verification systems;
• Support innovative technologies/methods to monitor harvesting operations and track timber from point of harvest, through processing mills, ports and on to final markets (domestic, regional or international);
• Develop methods for data reconciliation and improvement within the supply chain, especially in harvesting and processing operations;
• Technical support to develop or test auditing systems of legal compliance and origin tailored to national circumstances;
• Support to develop systems to monitor, verify and reconcile contract requirements, management planning and production data.

 6.      Policy/legislative/regulatory frameworks

Support stakeholder groups to review and reform policies, legislative and regulatory frameworks to meet internationally accepted natural resources management standards by providing support for the following types of activities:  

• Establish multi-stakeholder fora and participatory processes for dialogue and development of policy/ legislation/ regulation;
• Support revision of forest legislative/regulatory/fiscal regimes with expected positive results such as improved access to forests for dependent communities, increased transparency in the forest sector or improved market efficiency or business environment;
• Undertake other relevant activities to strengthen policy and institutional frameworks.

 7.      Private initiatives

Support initiatives that improve private sector corporate social responsibility, market efficiency, exchange and availability of forest sector information or establish dialogue between private sector organizations, government institutions and civil society organizations by providing support for the following types of activities:

• Review lessons learned from corporate social responsibility initiatives, and examine ways of applying these lessons in the forest sector;
• Support private sector organizations to develop and adopt standard codes of conduct, transparency in private sector initiatives, and independent monitoring;
• Encourage active private sector participation and contributions for technical and financial assistance to the supply chain;
• Support private sector organizations to participate in supply chain management systems and publish what you pay schemes;
• Support internal and external audit to test compliance with legality assurance systems.

8.      Domestic and regional market issues

Support improved knowledge, understanding and capacity to manage domestic and sub-regional timber and fuelwood markets by providing support for the following types of activities:

• Research on domestic timber or fuelwood market patterns, origins, management systems or other information that would facilitate improved management of domestic use of resources;
• Establishing systems of improved availability and reliability of domestic market information;
• Support to develop and test innovative strategies to enforce laws and regulations governing domestic market;
• Support the development of policy, legislation or regulations to improve governance in domestic markets;
• Strengthen regional and international cooperation in forest law enforcement and governance in cooperation with relevant international, regional and sub-regional organizations and intergovernmental bodies;
• Promote policy dialogue and exchange of experience and information on international market developments related to the demand for legal and sustainable tropical timber and timber products and meeting market requirements.

9.      Communications, outreach and information assistance

Provide opportunities for improved communications, outreach and information about FLEGT-related topics and programmes.

In countries that do not have extensive prior knowledge of FLEGT or established FLEGT programmes, proposed assistance could include:

• Provide assistance for regional knowledge sharing opportunities on any of the nine thematic areas in this guide. 
• Provide technical assistance to assist ACP country stakeholder groups to assess their current FLEGT knowledge and possible needs. Based on the needs assessments, provide support to develop a FLEGT implementation road map.

In countries that are working within the VPA process or have greater knowledge of FLEGT activities, proposed assistance could include:

• Support to communications initiatives that target forest sector government institutions, stakeholders, or stakeholder groups.
• Outreach to key forest dependent populations in key geographic areas.
• Support to stakeholder groups to develop informed stakeholder platforms who can meaningfully participate in FLEGT or VPA processes.