UEF official member of the two new EU Commission groups

Thursday, July 16 , 2020 4783

On 23 July 2019, the European Commission adopted an EU Communication on Stepping up EU Action to Protect and Restore the World’s Forests .

The Communication has the objective of protecting and improving the health of existing forests, especially primary forests, and significantly increasing sustainable, biodiverse forest coverage worldwide.

In the framework of this objective, the Commission decide to create a new multi-stakeholder platform on deforestation and forest degradation.

 

Since 2003, action under the EU FLEGT Action Plan has fought illegal logging and associated trade. Working with partner countries to improve forest governance and capacity building are key components of the Action Plan. One of its central elements, the EU Timber Regulation, obliges operators who place timber and timber products on the EU market to exert due diligence to minimise the risk of importing illegally harvested timber.

 

the Commission has decided to expand the scope of the existing “Expert Group on the EU Timber Regulation and the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulation” to serve both as forum for the interaction with EU Member States’ authorities and as the multi-stakeholder platform to be established pursuant to the Communication. The group has therefore been renamed “Commission Expert Group / Multi-Stakeholder Platform on Protecting and Restoring the World's Forests, including the EU Timber Regulation and the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulation”. The work of this new group has been divided in two strands: the implementation of the EU Timber Regulation and the FLEGT Regulation, and the follow-up to the “Commission Communication on Protecting and Restoring the World’s Forests”, and separate meetings are being organised.

 

UEF was choosen by the Commission to be full member of these two new groups and is included in the list of member organisations for the work on the implementation of the EU Timber Regulation and the FLEGT Regulation and the list of member organisations for the work on the follow-up to the “Commission Communication on Protecting and Restoring the World’s Forests”.

 

UEF will represent all professional foresters participating actively in these two new groups.

 

The UEF Presidency

 

 

 

Related documents:
Stakeholder Members of Expanded EUTR-FLEGT Expert Group.pdf
Stakeholder Members of Platform on Deforestation.pdf