Ben Vickers
Regional Programme Officer, Regional advisor for Asia-Pacific
FAO
New initiative to combat illegal logging and trade
Underlying weak governance issues, such as insecure land tenure, potentially conflicting legal frameworks, poor law enforcement and unclear management and enforcement responsibilities, can exacerbate illegality in the forestry sector. This initiative will support each country in the development of national standards, systems and capacities for verification of legal and sustainable timber, including through forest certification. It will also complement the support provided through the FAO-EU-FLEGT Programme for the development of Timber Legality Assurance Schemes and Voluntary Partnership Agreements between Lower Mekong countries and the European Union. It will also promote responsible investment and lending practices among Lower Mekong capital providers by raising awareness of the financial risks associated with illegal logging and land conversion and by highlighting emerging investment opportunities in sustainable timber production models.
The new initiative will be integrated into the existing UN-REDD Programme framework, allowing it to leverage more than a decade’s worth of valuable knowledge, networks and human capital accumulated since the Programme was launched in 2008.
Forest crime in the face of Covid-19
In addition, there is a risk that in the rush to recover from Covid-19 and restart the engines of economic growth, environmental concerns will fall far down the list of national priorities. To prevent this, sustainability should be integrated into countries’ legislative and economic systems.
By supporting the existing regional dialogues and forums and addressing nationally-specific barriers to the implementation of their decisions, the project will also make efforts to address forests in a post-Covid-19 reality and advocate for economic recovery that does not occur at the expense of the region’s unique forest ecosystems or impact the substantial progress made by the forest sector in addressing climate change.
Authors:
Senior Forestry Officer, REDD+ Team Leader
FAO
Emelyne Cheney
Regional Advisor on Forest and Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific
UNEP
Ben Vickers
Regional Programme Officer, Regional advisor for Asia-Pacific
FAO