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Highlights from Tuesday, 22 November
On Tuesday, delegates to the ENA-FLEG Ministerial Conference convened in morning Plenary to hear opening statements and status reports on the ENA-FLEG process and the Ministerial Declaration (MD) and the Indicative Action Plan (IAP). In the afternoon, delegates met to negotiate the MD and IAP. In a parallel session the civil society and industry dialogue convened to discuss the MD and IAP and develop key messages for the joint session with the government negotiators.
Photo: Valery Roshchupkin, Head, Federal Forestry Agency, Russian Federation, speaks with the press |
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| Jürgen Blaser, Co-Facilitator, ENA FLEG Ministerial Conference, John Hudson, Department for International Development, UK, Kristalina Georgieva, Country Director for Russia, World Bank, Russia, Valery Roshchupkin, Federal Forestry Agency, Russia, Gerhard Dieterle, Co-Chair, Ministerial Conference, Tapani Oksanen, World Bank, and Jag Maini, Co-Facilitator, ENA FLEG Ministerial Conference |
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Kristalina Georgieva, Country Director, World Bank, Russian Federation, and Valery Roshchupkin, Head, Federal Forestry Agency, Russian Federation
Kristalina Georgieva (left) referred to the current stage of negotiations as progress from identification of problems to implementing recommendations. She noted the ongoing dialogue between governments, the private sector and the NGO community, and emphasized the interest of the World Bank in resolving the issue of illegal logging. Valery Roshchupkin (right) opened the Conference by welcoming the participants and noting the broad representation from governments, the UN system, and civil society. He stressed the Russian Federation's interest in the ENA-FLEG process, and described current national activities in the forest sector, including innovative use of aerospace and electro-magnetic monitoring of forests. |
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| John Hudson, Senior Forestry Adviser, Department for International Development, UK and Representative of the EU Presidency, delivered the keynote address on the importance of FLEG and interlinkages to the MDGs and G8 Programme of Action.
He highlighted the need for coherent policies to address illegal logging, and outlined some common trends, including: access to resources; lack of clarity in rights and regulations; lack of transparency, representation and accountability; capture of state resources by elites; and regressive taxes. Hudson then underscored the role of ENA-FLEG process in identifying actions to address illegal logging through: building partnerships; appropriate fiscal and regulatory regimes; influencing demand through voluntary and mandatory measures; and learning.
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| Tapani Oksanen, Task Team Leader, World Bank, provided a summary of the state of knowledge on illegal logging, related governance issues and potential responses in the ENA region. He outlined the economic, social and environmental impacts of, and differentiated between, commercial and poverty-driven illegal logging. He summarized key forest governance issues, including: regulatory frameworks and quality; forest policy and legislation; availability and reliability of data; and law enforcement. |
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Jürgen Blaser and Jag Maini provided a summary of the ENA FLEG process
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Jürgen Blaser (left), Co-facilitator of the ENA-FLEG, gave an overview of the ENA-FLEG process, highlighting its four elements, including the work of the preparatory committee, the drafting of elements for the MD and IAP, the Ministerial Conference, and the implementation phase.
Jag Maini,
Co-facilitator of the ENA-FLEG (right), then summarized the elements of the MD and IAP, noting that both stress national sovereignty and implementation and are the result of extensive input from governments, civil society and the private sector. |
| Gerhard Dieterle, Co-Chair of the Ministerial Conference |
| Invited Statements from The Forests Dialogue, Private Sector and NGO Representatives |
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Ragnar Friberg, Senior Vice-President, Sustainability, Stora Enso, Gary Dunning, Executive Director, Forests Dialogue, and Alexey Yaroshenko, Greenpeace
Ragnar Friberg, Stora Enso, presented industry's perspective on illegal logging, noting that law enforcement is a government function and that efforts to combat illegal logging and illegal forest activity should not burden legal operators. He also emphasized collaboration in developing cost effective tools.
Gary Dunning, The Forests Dialogue (center), described the activities of this forum of private industry and civil society leaders interested in dialogues on priority sustainable forest management issues, including ENA FLEG. He stressed that civil society should be regarded as partners in the FLEG process, and that governments are expected to take a lead role in addressing illegal logging.
Alexey Yaroshenko, Greenpeace, said illegal logging is a social phenomenon linked to poor governance, and that the new Russian Forest Code will result in both increased job loss and illegal logging. He also said that the pervasive attitude among civil servants is that forest laws are negotiable. |
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| Intergovernmental Negotations Session |
Co Facilitators Jag Maini, Canada, Jürgen Blaser, Switzerland, Viktor Teplyakov, Russia, and Elena Kulikova, Russia, during the afternoon intergovernmental negotiation session |
| Alexksandar Vasiljevic and Dusan Jovic, Serbia and Montenegro (left) and Jan McAlpine, US (right) |
| Civil Society and Industry Dialogue |
| Gary Dunning, The Forest Dialogue (center), chaired the Civil Society and Industry Dialogue (CSID). He said the focus of the CSID was to develop a joint industry-civil society consensus statement on the MD and IAP. |
| Side event: CPEI's Code of Conduct on the legal logging of wood: 6 principles for Legal Logging |
| The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) introduced a code of "Code of Conduct on legal logging of wood," which outlines six principles of conduct by which CEPI members express their ongoing commitment to the combat of illegal logging, rendering the black market for timber altogether irrelevant. |
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