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International Forum on the Sustainable Development of the Wood Industry in Congo Basin Countries
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Over the past ten years, the overall supply
of wood from natural tropical forests
has shrunk because of production costs and pressure from environmental groups
There is a great potential in Central Africa for developing forest plantations to meet the
growing demand for wood, especially fuelwood. POTENTIALITIES
Rehabilitation of degraded and unused land.
...certification and despite a European context that in general seeks to ensure more responsible consumption, such certification at present enjoys only minimal recognition, which prevents the enterprises involved in the initiative from thriving on a sustainable basis and thus ensuring its social and environmental benefits. Forest certification must be based on monitoring systems that take account of the real situation on the ground and develop standards that are recognized within VPAs, so as to facilitate controls and the issuing of FLEGT permits for certified enterprises. Despite the political commitment of Central African countries, there have been delays in implementing VPAs, as a result particularly of (a) the underestimated need to build stakeholders’ capacities, (b) a small and
Moreover, the development of a policy promoting forest plantations in Central Africa would help reduce poverty by encouraging the development of communities that will participate in the establishment and monitoring of such plantations and the utilization of resources coming from them (firewood, charcoal, electricity and heat production).
CHALLENGES
ES EM H YT KE theme 1 /
ADVANCED WOOD PROCESSING
>> >> MORE INFORMATION ON THE EU-FAO-FLEGT PROGRAMME: www.fao.org/forestry/eu-flegt/
theme 2 / MARKETS OUTLOOKS
theme 3 / THE FLEGT ACTION PLAN & FOREST CERTIFICATIONS
theme 4 / FOREST PLANTATIONS
sustainable development
Legal wood products & better livelihoods: welcome!
T
his forum is the catalyst for addressing issues important for the sustainable
under the auspices of the Ministry of Forestry and Sustainable Development of the Republic of Congo
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
Paving the way to
The major constraints are political and land tenure insecurity, problems of governance, insufficient research and development, the lack of effective financing mechanisms and competition from other land uses.
medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector that very seldom has sufficient technical and financial means to meet legality requirements and (c) difficulties in establishing a national traceability system. This delay in issuing FLEGT permits affects the activity of European importers, who are today obliged to apply due diligence, in other words to minimize the risk of having illegal wood enter their supply chain – which requires major but sometimes insufficient efforts to document their purchases of wood and wood products. This thus complicates commercial exchanges, whereas the issuing of credible FLEGT permits would ensure automatic entry into European markets.
21-22 October 2013
development of our value chain. Those who take part in the forum will draw up the first Declaration on tropical wood. Although it
may not be a legally binding agreement, the Brazzaville Declaration will be an innovative document intended to establish a “golden standard” for harvesting and processing
tropical wood. Recommendations from
workshops on wood transformation conducted
since 2010 are gathered in a White Paper
the White Paper aims to act as a reference tool
be taken as a first attempt at an evaluation
the development of a sustainable forest
that will be presented at the Forum and may
“
of the “state of the wood value chain”.
Serving as the working basis for the Forum,
for the involvement of all the stakeholders in industry in Congo Basin countries.
Nowadays we require all players to process wood on site and to create added value on site. This is now an established rule: we want this added value to be available to Congo
Source: Afrik.com, May 2013
Forest plantations
HENRI DJOMBO MINISTER OF FORESTRY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, REPUBLIC OF CONGO