Monrovia, Liberia//-– As the international COP29 climate talks begin in Baku, Azerbaijan next week, the European Union has suddenly decided to cut its support for forest trade treaties – called Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) — with two African countries despite demonstrated results in helping these countries curb illegal logging and strengthen national controls against illicit trade by timber mafias, announced the Liberia-based Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) today.
Dropping VPAs will likely increase pressure on forests from illegal logging and reverse governance gains.
“This will send the wrong signal to the EU’s tropical forest partners after the recent Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) and before the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29).
It could undermine the 2024-2029 political guidelines laid out in ‘Europe’s Choice’ by freshly elected Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,” said Jonathan W. Yiah, Coordinator of SDI’s Forest Governance Program.
“This is an ironic move by the EU as they up their rhetoric on climate change and the need for Africa to reduce tropical deforestation,” said Dr Arthur Blundell, formerly with the United Nations Security Council Affairs Division Pool of Experts. “Only a few decades ago, Liberia’s forest sector was synonymous with crime and conflict. President Charles Taylor looted the country’s forests to fund two civil wars.”
Cameroon is increasingly affected by conflict and banditry, according to the World Bank’s classification of fragile and conflict-affected situations. Despite these challenges, both countries are taking concrete steps in their backyards to improve the way they manage their forests and ensure the benefits from sustainably and legally produced wood are distributed to local communities under these forest partnership agreements.
In Liberia, for example, some of the tax revenues raised from forest management go to fund community development projects, such as community construction of local health care clinics, schools and vocational training centres, according to Blundell.
The FLEGT process is overhauling forest governance in timber-producing countries with an approach that gives voices to populations that used to be unheard of, and that secures the rights of those most affected by forest destruction.
At the same time, it provides significant trade incentives to governments and the private sector through the promise of “green lane” access to EU markets. To build a more level playing field, the VPA’s insistence on stakeholder participation, transparency, and accountability − typically where such political traditions haven’t existed − has profoundly improved the governance landscape, according to experts and research.
Cameroon signed a Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) with the EU in 2010. New independent research carried out in 2024 by the European Forestry Institute (EFI) concluded that, because of the agreement, Cameroon improved its forest governance over the period 2007-2022.
As framed by the agreement, Cameroon has updated its forest law, retooled the institutions providing regulatory oversight of the forest sector across the entire country, and is building a national traceability and digital forest information management system (SIGIF2). To curb illegal logging, it has just linked this SIGIF2 tracking system to road checkpoints.
It has made it mandatory to use the system for reporting all timber transport movements and forest tax transactions. The aim of the system (the Minister of Forestry has recently placed a joint EU-Cameroon review of it on his Ministry’s website) is to stop illegal logging and the transport of illegal logs, as well as evasion of forest taxes. The system should also eventually help provide evidence of origin for legally harvested and traded wood. The challenges Cameroon is currently grappling with are a lack of funding to educate all users and poor internet connectivity in remote areas.
However, the country was blindsided when the EU suddenly and unilaterally proposed to the European Council on the 2nd of October 2024 that the forest partnership agreement be terminated without consideration of other options (also laid out in a prior joint assessment available on the Ministry’s website) or of the global signals this sends about Cameroon’s trade, its stakeholder engagement, its reputation and the role of its Parliament.
Liberia signed a similar forest partnership agreement with the EU in 2013, under which it reformed its forest rules, increased the amount of domestic forest tax collected, and made that information publicly available. The EU has unexpectedly indicated it will also terminate the successful forest governance trade agreement it has with Liberia.
“I was concerned and taken aback to hear three weeks ago the EU is suddenly and unexpectedly thinking of terminating our successful forest governance trade agreement,” said Harrison S Karnwea Sr., former Minister of the Interior for Liberia, former Managing Director and former Chair of the Board of Directors of the Forest Development Authority.
“Europe has always been a trusted partner for us in Liberia. We have invested a lot of time and money in building and implementing our forest governance trade agreement with the EU, and we continue to improve our forest laws.
Withdrawing unilaterally from the agreement, as I have heard the EU may do, risks stigmatising our forest sector and our credibility as a global trading partner and as a Parliamentary democracy.
We agreed to a partnership among equals. It became binding on both parties once it was ratified. I hope personally to discuss this principle of legality with the European Parliament. The time for old-style relations and unilateral decisions has passed.”
“The termination of the Forest Law Enforcement Governance Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) will likely have detrimental effects on local communities by promoting illegal logging, undermining economic stability and threatening environmental sustainability,” said Andrew Zeleman, Head and Facilitator of Liberia’s National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON LIBERIA
According to Blundell, Liberia established a National Benefits Sharing Trust, which redistributes a third of the land rental tax collected by the government from industrial logging concessions to fund small community projects proposed through local Community Forestry Development Committees.
“The agreement ensures local communities can raise their voice in monthly multi-stakeholder meetings with government, private sector and NGOs, and that civil society’s role in monitoring what is going on in the forests is officially recognised,” Zeleman added.
“We get to know how much forest revenue is being disbursed to communities for their projects, and if payments are delayed, we can complain and ask the government to respond. There are 50 community projects currently underway, including examples such as a school in Yarpa Town in River Cess, where before there was none, and health clinics in Lower Nimba and Lofa, all funded because of democratic reforms in the forest sector.
I fear terminating the agreement will mean the National Benefits Sharing Trust will suffer, payments to it may be further delayed as we will be less able to call the government to account, more illegal logs will go to markets with lax timber regulations, and weaker rule of law will place communities at risk from unlawful elements.”
Cancellation will also affect the forest industry. “The neutral third-party verification system in Liberia is operated by an independent entity, SGS, under the auspices of the EU agreement.
This has provided an uplift to our formal private forest sector,” said E. Ekema A. Witherspoon, former coordinator of the secretariat of the Liberian Timber Association, which has about 50 registered company members. “ An ‘EU FLEGT licence’ will provide stronger certification and proof that our wood is produced by legal means.
This carries weight with other export markets beyond Europe, such as Vietnam and India. We would like to be more competitive and do more trade in Europe, which is a quality market and would mean lower transport costs.
But our companies need more specialist training, equipment and infrastructure to add value to our exports and produce high-end crafted wooden furniture, flooring, panels, etc., from a lower volume of logs.
This would open up much-needed skilled employment opportunities for our youth. The open dialogue multi-stakeholder platform, another mechanism established under the EU agreement, has reduced conflict among different groups. The private sector can now speak openly and constructively with civil society to resolve differences and tensions that may arise.”
“Of course, we are grateful to the EU for their support in capacity building for our forest sector,” said Harrison S Karnwea Sr., former Minister of the Interior for Liberia, former Managing Director and former Chair of the Board of Directors of the Forest Development Authority.
“But this agreement goes beyond traditional aid projects. We have applied its arrangements and principles across the board, regardless of which countries we trade with, in the belief we need to encourage responsible market standards beyond Europe.
I have worked for about 15 years in proud partnership with the EU, promoting and sharing with other tropical forest nations and consumer countries the lessons Liberia has learned under this agreement and championing the issue of illegal deforestation at UNFCCC COPs. We need to work together to solve the global economic and environmental problems our planet faces.”
