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Nature 02388.txt

Liberia and European union sign pact to curb illegal logging: Nature Newsthe European union (EU) and Liberia have signed a trade deal aimed at ending illegal exports of timber from the African country. The United nations Security council banned timber imports from Liberia in 2003, after it was shown that the industry was being used to fund civil wars that left hundreds of thousands of people dead. The civil wars are now over, and sanctions were lifted in 2006 following the reform of the forestry sector, which included the creation of a nationwide timber tracking system. It is hoped that the deal with the EU, known as a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA could help to enforce Liberia's revamped legislation and restimulate trade with Europe. Currently the forestry sector produces less than US$5 million in revenues, and that could grow to $50 million in the next few years, says Elfrieda Tamba, Liberia's deputy minister of finance. Liberia is the fifth African country to sign such an agreement with Europe, following Ghana, Cameroon, the Republic of congo and the Central african republic. Indonesia was the largest timber exporter and the first Asian country to sign a VPA agreement with the EU last week, after eight years of negotiations. Illegally harvested wood accounts for around 40%of timber exports from Indonesia and around 15%of the country's exports reach the EU. A VPA is a bilateral agreement between the EU and a wood-exporting country that aims to ensure that timber reaching European shores is legally sourced. The definition of legality is negotiated with each country. For Liberia, among other requirements,'legal'timber exports must be sourced from legitimate concessions that have a social agreement with local communities and pay the required government taxes and fees. The chain of custody is monitored then by an independent third party. On paper, it's one of the strongest frameworks for forestry oversight in the world says Silas Siakor, a Liberian activist and Goldman Environmental prizewinner, who has been monitoring the negotiation of Liberia's VPA process. So, for some people, the agreement has generated high hopes. Once Liberia's infrastructure problem is solved, with the VPA and committed leadership, I don't see any other obstacles, says Tamba. But building both the infrastructure and the workforce for a well-functioning industry in the war-torn country could take years, or even decades. Liberia hopes to get its first VPA timber in circulation by 2014, but that's a tall order. None of the six countries with VPAS has started producing licensed timber. Ghana the first country to sign a VPA, in 2009, hopes to get its timber on the market before 2013. This is when the EU Timber Regulation, which requires European importers to prove that their sources are legal, comes into force. Lack of political will could also be a major stumbling block for the deal, according to Siakor. There are currently around one million hectares of concessions in Liberia, which are run by a handful of operators. But there are ongoing questions about the legality of how the concessions were awarded, he says. And almost all the companies owe taxes to the state. There is also considerable illegal logging going on to supply the domestic market through informal chain-saw operators adds Art Blundell, who chaired the Panel of Experts on Liberia at the United nations Security council during the time of the timber sanctions. It opens the question of whether Liberia's new laws are enough, says Sam Lawson, director of Earthsight, a London-based non-governmental organization specializing in the investigation of environmental wrongdoings. That's why these bilateral agreements are so crucial. On the one hand, close scrutiny of certification papers by European importers could act as an extra safeguard in the system. But on the other, only a fraction of Liberia's exports are shipped to Europe. Most of Liberia's wood ends up in China which does not have an equivalent accreditation scheme. Chinese customs won't be asking for licences, says Lawson. China's role is primarily as a middleman, Lawson adds. Much of the wood exported to China is manufactured into wood products, and then sent on to Europe and the United states without papers. Lawson also questions the strength of safeguards in importing countries in Europe because the legislation allows countries to determine their own penalties for breaches in paperwork. Because of the open European market, all it takes is one country with inadequate checks to let the timber in and then it can go everywhere, he says.

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