Voluntary Partnership Agreement

Voluntary Partnership Agreements, or VPAs, lie at the core of the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan – the European Union’s response to a call for action at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

VPAs are meant to act as a practical mechanism for identifying and excluding illegal timber from the EU market.[1] Under the scheme, timber that is legally harvested and exported to the EU would be identified by means of licences issued in signatory countries. Timber shipments to the EU from partner countries that do not have a VPA permit would be denied entry under the Agreement.

Signed

As of May 2014, six countries - Indonesia,[2] Ghana, Republic of Congo, Liberia, Central African Republic,[3] and Cameroon[4] have finalised VPAs with the European Union.[5]

In 2014, the EU-FAO Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published the study The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) process in Central and West Africa: from theory to practice[6] to document and foster strategic reflection in partner countries already engaged in negotiating a VPA - or those who will be entering into such negotiations - by providing examples of good practices. These good practices were identified and recorded following interviews with the main stakeholders in eight VPA countries in West and Central Africa, the European Forest Institute’s (EFI) EU FLEGT Facility and the European Commission.

In negotiations

Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guyana, Gabon, Malaysia, Honduras, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are currently in formal VPAs negotiations with the EU.[7]

Other countries in Africa (Sierra Leone), South East Asia (Myanmar and Cambodia), Latin America (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru) and the South Pacific (Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands) have also participated in informal VPA discussions with the EU.[5][6][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "What are FLEGT VPAs?"
  2. ↑ "Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Indonesia on forest law enforcement, governance and trade in timber products to the European Union". Council of the European Union. European Union. 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  3. ↑ Kiyindou, Nina Cynthia, and Iola Leal Riesco. 2010, March. "A civil society counter-brief on the Congo-EU VPA." Observatoire Congolais de Droits de l’Homme and FERN.
  4. ↑ A civil society counter-brief on the Cameroon–EU VPA Archived July 19, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  5. 1 2 International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. 2009, May 15. "EU Signs Timber Agreement with Republic of Congo," Bridges Trade BioRes 9 (9).
  6. 1 2 The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) process in Central and West Africa: from theory to practice (PDF). FAO. 2014.
  7. ↑ "FERN VPA update"
  8. ↑ Timber Trade Federation. n.d. "FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement"
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