Civil Society in Russia and ENA FLEGCivil Society in Russia and ENA FLEG

Dr. Evgeny Shvarts

WWF Russia / Director of Conservation Policy

21 February 2005

Role of Conservation NGOs

Civil Society: Main Players in Civil Society: Main Players in ENA FLEGENA FLEG

Conservation NGOs

Social NGOs

Business

NGO Vision on ENA FLEG: NGO Vision on ENA FLEG: Essential Principles of Success Essential Principles of Success 1. Analysis of successes and weakness of

previous FLEG processes (Asia, Africa)

2. Involving civil society into preparation and development of ENA FLEG process.

3. Realization of Action Plan after Ministerial Conference under control of civil society

Problems in Russian Forestry: Problems in Russian Forestry: Forest Governance and LegislationForest Governance and Legislation

1. Lack of clearly structured legally-binding forest policies and strategies to generate nation-wide long-term benefits.

2. Inadequate and weak institutional framework

3. Utilitarian and non-economics based (oriented only to volume of timber) approach to forest resource use.

4. High level of corruption and lack of transparency in decision making processes

EU FLEGT and NGOs:Joint Documents

Letter to President Romano Prodi Subject: European Commission Measures to Combat Illegal Timber Trade

Green groups draft EU legislation to outlaw illegal wood imports

PRINCIPLES FOR FLEGT PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS

FERN, Greenpeace and WWF comments on the draft Council Regulation concerning the establishment of a voluntary FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community

Etc.

EU FLEGT and NGOs: Joint Statement

SIGNATURES:

165 NGOs

22 INDIVIDUALS

CONTROLING TIMBER IMPORTS INTO THE EUJOINT NGO STATEMENT

Russia: National Conservation NGOsRussia: National Conservation NGOs

Elaboration of Joint Position on

ENA FLEG

ЭКОДАЛЬ

NGO Planned Actions: NGO Planned Actions: Civil Society InvolvementCivil Society Involvement

1. Seminar in St.Petersburg 21-23 February

2. Seminar in Khabarovsk, 2-4 March

“Forest business and ENA FLEG”Moscow, 23 March

NGO Planned Actions: NGO Planned Actions: Informational supportInformational support

http://fleg.forest.ru

http://www.wwf.ru/about/what_we_do/forests/flegt/

NGO Planned Actions: NGO Planned Actions: Highlighting ProblemsHighlighting Problems

3-4 Publication on illegal logging and related issues in several regions of Russia

Spring issue of “Sustainable Forestry” magazine will be dedicated ENA FLEG

Conservation NGOs Conservation NGOs Major Points of Concern: Major Points of Concern:

• Civil society and NGO involvement in ENA FLEG process

• Existence of an effective national forest guard service on the local level

• Transparency and public access to information

• Public (stakeholders, local population and NGOs) involvement into decision making process in forest management practice

• Execution of existing legal environmental requirements (EIA, etc) in practice

WWF Vision: Priority PointsWWF Vision: Priority Points• Development and legal adoption of National Forest Policy to ensure SFM•Provide legal and economic incentives to move part of state responsibilities to forest lease holders (through voluntary forest certification, tracing systems, etc)

•Agree international measures to ensure that effective actions be undertaken to clean the supply chain from timber products of illegal or suspicious origins

•Unify the ENA-FLEG terminology (illegal logging, illegal timber trade, etc.), timber measurement methods and qualitative parameters meant for customs processing

eshvarts@wwf.ru