Therefore, end deforestation and its continued support in the we urge the EU to clarify its vision for the future of fight against illegal logging through the Voluntary forests and for implementing and developing VPAs, in Partnership Agreements (VPAs), part of the Forest Law light of its proposed Regulation on Deforestation-Free Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Products. [...] Moreover, it The partial recognition of FLEGT licenses to determine does not address the need for forest communities the legality of imported timber on the EU market is to be able to get benefits and revenues from their an important signal that the EU will honour existing forests. [...] The proposed Regulation should incentivise and Critical gaps in Regulation on support all countries to reach the FLEGT licensing Deforestation-Free Products stage within a reasonable timeframe and help them to assess their compliance with the new We are concerned by the lack of consultation with deforestation/forest degradation criteria, including stakeholders in VPA countries on the EU Regulation. [...] However, the new rules will companies (which include obligating companies prevent smallholders from converting their forested to comply the laws of the producing country), are farmland to cocoa, and they will be denied access elements that could improve the governance of the to sell their cocoa beans to the lucrative EU market. [...] Deforestation-Free Products In West Africa, there are different perspectives on how The Regulation is top down and unilateral, unlike the this will affect smallholders and what should be done approach taken by the FLEGT regulation in which to mitigate that impact, based on the amount of forests the VPA was arrived at through multi-stakeholder and the livelihoods of cocoa farmers in each country.
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- Published in
- Belgium
