FLEGT stands for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade. The EU published the EU FLEGT Action Plan in 2003. The Action Plan aims to reduce illegal logging by strengthening the sustainability and legality of forest management, improving forest governance and promoting trade in legally produced timber. FLEGT takes a multidimensional, coherent approach to overcoming the complex drivers and enablers of illegal logging. This approach is encompassed in the five letters of F-L-E-G-T and the seven elements of the Action Plan.
F is for Forest
The EU FLEGT Action Plan protects tropical forests from the devastating effects of illegal logging. Forests support 90% of the world’s biodiversity, regulate water quality, and mitigate climate change by absorbing and storing close to half of the world’s terrestrial carbon. More than 1.6 billion people depend on forests for food, medicine and livelihoods. Forests are also crucial to the global economy, providing billions of dollars in raw materials for timber, paper and construction.
L is for Law
FLEGT applies legal measures in the EU and timber-producing countries to combat illegal logging. The EU has adopted a regulation to stop businesses from placing illegal timber products on the EU market. In timber-producing countries involved in FLEGT, governments are working to stop illegal logging and to ensure that supplies of timber are legal. Governments in timber-producing countries are ensuring that laws governing the use of forests are fair, effective and practical to enforce, and that people who depend on forests and businesses understand and agree with these laws. Through FLEGT, timber-exporting countries develop systems to verify the legality of their timber products.
E is for Enforcement
FLEGT strengthens the enforcement of laws that prohibit illegal logging and trade in illegal timber products. It clarifies definitions of legality in timber-producing countries and ensures countries have robust supply-chain controls in place to ensure legality. This makes it easier for law enforcers and judiciaries to do their jobs. Since 2013, all countries in the EU have been required to enforce a regulation requiring businesses dealing in timber to ensure that the wood they trade is legal.
G is Governance
FLEGT tackles poor forest governance head-on by improving transparency, accountability, participation, capacity and coordination. In the EU and timber-producing countries, the private sector and civil society are involved in developing the FLEGT approach to ensuring legality. Multistakeholder participation enables groups with different perspectives to reach consensus, and ensures solutions have broad support.
T is for Trade
FLEGT leverages trade to both increase the supply of legal timber and reduce demand for illegal timber. Trade measures can be powerful. In 2011, the global trade in primary timber products alone was worth more than EUR 108 billion. EU companies and intra-EU trade accounted for about 35% of this global trade. Without illegal logging the value of timber traded would have been even higher as criminality depresses world prices for timber and timber products by an estimated 7 to 16%. FLEGT levels the playing field in the timber trade and increases market access for legitimate businesses by eliminating illegal timber. 80% of tropical timber exports to the EU come from countries involved in FLEGT.
