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December 2004
AFP WORK PLAN (Legality 2)
1. Title of the Work Plan
Formulating guidelines for systems to verify/assess the
legality of timber within the context of sustainable forest management
2. Main objectives of the Work Plan
Main objective of this workplan is to develop a
guideline for the verification of legality of timber.
The role of forest or timber certification in
addressing illegal logging and determining a “minimum standard of legality”
that would satisfy consuming country demands has been addressed to some
extent at the AFP. Many look upon forest management certification as a
workable means that can contribute to the solution to illegal logging.
However, forest certification is a very slow and difficult process, notably
in the tropics. For example, the only timber certification schemes in
operation in the ASEAN region are the LEI scheme in Indonesia and the MTCC
scheme in Malaysia, although many of the other ASEAN Member Countries are in
the initial stages of developing certification standards and procedures.
Indeed, ASEAN has commenced a process to develop a regional timber
certification scheme by phases.
The realization regarding the complexity and slow
pace of developing and implementing forest certification has inevitably
increased the support for a step-wise or phased approach towards SFM and
certification. A common concept is a three-step model which divides timber
in three verified classes pertaining to its production circumstances:
Legal compliance (respect of national and local laws)
is one of the basic requirements of any certification scheme. Forest
certification can therefore provide a practical and realistic means to
verify the legal origin of timber products in a credible and
market-acceptable manner.
It is therefore appropriate that any system to
establish legality of timber should build upon existing systems and that we
do not reinvent the wheel.
There are a number of approaches to evaluate and
trace material from legal sources. The key consideration is that the system
developed must be workable and provides a practical means to evaluate legal
origin or compliance, as well as a clear chain-of-custody to trace the
material through processing and trading to the retail market. Such a
legality verification system must balance scope in covering the range of
issues of concern with the practicalities of implementing a system that
makes the right distinctions and that is affordable and workable focusing on
legality issue (van Beuren, 2004).
In developing systems to address the issue regarding
legality of timber, the fundamental question that remains to be answered is
“How to define legality in the context of curbing illegal timber?” It is
therefore pertinent that when addressing this issue in the Asian region, the
definition of “legality” has to be clearly elaborated and agreed to by the
parties concerned, taking into account the local forestry situation,
including legislation of the forestry sector.
Third party assessment by independent certifiers to
verify the legality of the timber source is now acknowledged as the first
step towards forest management certification. At the second AFP meeting in
Yogyakarta in July 2003, it was agreed that action be taken to identify and
explore potential activities in addressing forest issues in the Asian
region, which amongst others, include forest or timber certification as a
means to verify legality of timber sources.
In moving this agenda forward, the Regional Workshop
on Strengthening the AFP deliberated on programmes and activities of AFP in
combating illegal logging, especially on developing minimum standards of
legality, timber tracking and CoC systems, and verification systems among
AFP partners. In line with the decisions made at the AFP meetings and the
recent Regional Workshop, this workplan is aiming to develop a guideline for
the verification of legality of timber.
3. Expected results
The Working Document on the proposed guidelines for systems to verify/assess legality of timber should address the pertinent issues related to the legal origin of timber, including the definition of legality, the chain-of-custody, and requirements for third party verification, and how verification for legal origin of timber can form the first step in implementing forest or timber certification in the countries concerned in order to promote sustainable forest management. It is envisaged that the outcome from the Workshop can also contribute to the implementation of the proposed ASEAN timber certification scheme.
4. Modalities/Procedures
(i) Consultancy to prepare Working Document for the
Workshop and Final Report for submission to AFP (current workplan
(legality))
(ii) Convening of a three-day Workshop on Guidelines for Systems to
Verify/Assess Legality of Timber
(iii) Field testing of the guidelines adopted where appropriate
(iv) Submission of Final Report
5. Time frame
Workplan proposed at the 4th Meeting of AFP (Dec 2004)
(ii) Review and completion of the draft report of current workplan (legality).
(iii) To convene and/or participate in Workshops on illegal logging and timber
certification/verification for learning lessons of the other parties
(iv) To summarize experiences of the on-going field-testing trials in the region
based on inputs from the AFP partners and interested parties.
(v) Submission of Final Report to 5th Meeting of AFP (Late 2005)
6. Arrangements for potential funding
As the coordinator, MTCC takes lead.
7. Coordination
This workplan will be coordinated and implemented by MTCC
with guidance from a Project Steering Committee, which will comprise
representatives from the participating AFP Partners.
8. Partners involved: (to be confirmed)
Governments: Malaysia, (Importing countries), (Exporting countries)
Intergovernmental Organizations: (ITTO), (CIFOR)
NGOs: (TNC), (WWF), (SGS), (FoE Japan)
Private sector: (GFS), (Logging/timber companies)
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