On the 26, 27 and 28 May 2016, Preferred by Nature (formerly known as NEPCon) carried out a seminar in collaboration with Rainforest Alliance with involvement from Dirección General de Bosques, PNUE, COMIFAC, GEF and WRI/ANDEGE in Equatorial Guinea.
The focus of the seminar was on the mechanisms of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and the issues related to a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union and the private certification of legality of logging.
Project objective and approach
The main objective of this project was to conduct a seminar and bring together technical, national and sub-regional experts from Central Africa, to facilitate an understanding of the technical and administrative aspects of the main instruments for promoting legality in Central Africa: the FLEGT and forest certification schemes.
50 participants attended the seminar that consisted of the following four sessions:
- Open Session
- Presentation Session
- Team Working Session
- Closing Session
The open session was characterised by introductory and welcome speech. This session was followed by a presentation that touched upon different topics in accordance with the objective of the seminar. During this session the following topics were discussed:
- Progress of Equatorial Guinea in the FLEGT process;
- Definition of concepts linked to instruments to promote legal and sustainable forest management;
- Administrative Requirements for instruments to promote legal (VPA/FLEGT process);
- Promoting private instruments of legality in Central Africa;
- Presentations of the results of the balance of VPA FLEGT process study in the Congo Basin;
- Private instruments to promote sustainable forest management in Central Africa;
- Impacts and recommendations of VPA.
The team working session consisted of two working groups who worked with two different topics; elaboration of checklists for verifying the legal framework for forest legality and verification elements of the traceability of wood.
Project Outcomes
The outcomes of the project were:
- A final report summarising the discussions, presentations and activities carried out during the three-day workshop and training.
- Valuable insights into various concerns as raised by the participants. Concerns were related to the risk of illegality in forest management and industry, need to develop a study of the costs of implementing the VPA, need for more awareness raising and training of relevant stakeholders.
- A new project concept that deals with training, awareness raising and working on sustainable forest management and legality.
If you wish to learn more about this project, please contact us.
