21 Apr 2006 - Gland, Switzerland
- WWF, the global conservation organization, today
launched an EU-wide ranking of 22 EU governments
+ Switzerland on their attitudes and actions against
illegal logging. The 2006 ranking, which is comparable
to two earlier government evaluations in 2004,
shows that there has been little to no improvement.
WWF calls on national governments to stop paying
lip-service on illegal logging issues and to better
support responsibly acting companies and governments
in- and outside the EU through their national
policies.
None of the 23 surveyed countries
achieved acceptable results. The best performing
countries are the UK followed by the Netherlands,
Denmark, Latvia and Belgium, achieving however
just over 50% of total achievable scores. The
only country with notable improvements was the
Netherlands. In the case of the UK, the score
has actually gone down when compared to their
2004 score.
The surveyed governments mainly
achieved points on scores which measured their
attitudes on EU activities against illegal logging
and very few points were gained through national
actions. “Although support for EU action is laudable
and needed, it will not be enough to tackle the
global problem of illegal and destructive logging”,
said Beatrix Richards, Forest Policy Specialist
at WWF.
“The EU is a major consumer of illegal timber
from around the world, but the EU governments
are failing to drive sufficient demand for legal
and sustainable timber and wood products.”
The survey shows little to no
activity on responsible public procurement by
European governments.
Only France was able to prove a comprehensive
policy aimed to ensure that wood products purchased
by public institutions are legally and sustainably
produced. 7 countries could point to some, albeit
insufficient, public procurement policies: Austria,
UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland
and Belgium. The countries that improved on this
in the last 2 years were Belgium, Denmark and
the Netherlands.
All other countries were unable to demonstrate
to WWF any public procurement policies at all.
“Alarmingly, none of the surveyed governments
could prove effective implementation of their
policies and guarantee that their tax payers’
money is not fuelling illegal logging” said Karin
Wessman, Illegal logging co-ordinator at WWF International.
The evaluation shows further
that only Austria has developed a national action
programme to address issues around forest law
enforcement, governance and timber trade.
The governments were surveyed
also on their attitudes towards EU wide action.
They signalled clear support for EU legislation
to outlaw the import of illegal timber and wood
products into the EU. Such legislation would underpin
and support the current voluntary partnership
agreements negotiated by the EU on behalf of their
member states.
WWF has repeatedly emphasized that in the absence
of such legislation, illegal timber can be imported
from countries which are not part of voluntary
partnership agreements.
Notes to editors:
The Government Barometer, (detailed government
scorings from 2006 as well as the previous scorings
from April and September 2004) are available at
http://www.panda.org/barometer.
Scoring ranges 2006: 16 – 22
points: adequate; 9- 15 points: needs improvement;
0-8: inadequate
The governments scored as follows:
UK (13.4), the Netherlands (13.2), Denmark (11.6);
Latvia (11); Belgium (11), Germany (10.8), Estonia
(10), France (10), Sweden (9.4), Finland (9.4),
Austria (8), Slovenia (7.8), Switzerland (7.6),
Spain (7), Lithuania (6.8), Slovakia (6.8), Greece
(6.2), Italy (6), Hungary (5.2), Portugal (5),
Czech Republic (5), Poland (4), Ireland (2 – the
government refused to participate).
The 11 questions used to rate
the 23 countries were:
1. Position on the development of a voluntary
licensing scheme on timber, as proposed in the
FLEGT action plan
2. Position towards developing EU legislation
outlawing the import and marketing of illegally-sourced
timber or wood products
3. Position towards developing an EU initiative
to stop illegal logging in new EU member states
and EU candidate countries
4. The level of collaboration across government
departments to ensure national implementation
of the FLEGT action plan
5. Commitment to ensuring public procurement of
legal and sustainable wood products
6. Ability to prove the implementation of a sound
public procurement policy
7. Active participation in partnerships on combating
illegal logging and related trade
8. Ability to prove that their participation in
partnerships on combating illegal logging and
related trade is having a positive effect
9. Position about principles essential for negotiating
voluntary partnership agreements
10. The level of priority given to projects in
wood-producing developing countries aiming to
reduce illegal logging
11. National action programme to address issues
around forest law enforcement, governance and
timber trade
The scores have been generated by a WWF representative
based in the country in question and an international
scoring team to ensure consistency across different
countries. Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg have not
been included in the scoring as WWF has no representation
in these countries.
