Despite challenging context of poverty, climate change, rising debt and a Europe distracted by conflicts elsewhere, Cameroon and Liberia taking heroic steps to protect their forests and share forest benefits with local communitiesAs the international COP29 climate talks begin in Baku, Azerbaijan next week, the European Union has suddenly decided to cut its support for forest trade treaties - called Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) - with two African countries in spite of demonstrated results in helping these countries curb illegal logging and strengthen national controls against illicit trade by timber mafias, announced the Liberia-based Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) today.
Dropping VPAs will likely increase pressure on forests from illegal logging and reverse governance gains."This will send the wrong signal to EU's tropical forest partners after the recent Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) and before the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29).
It could undermine the 2024-2029 political guidelines laid out in 'Europe's Choice' by freshly elected Commission President Ursula von der Leyen," said Jonathan W.
Yiah, Coordinator of SDI's Forest Governance Program."This is an ironic move by the EU as they up their rhetoric on climate change and the need for Africa to reduce tropical deforestation," said Dr Arthur Blundell, formerly with the United Nations Security Council Affairs Division Pool of Experts. "Only a few decades ago Liberia's forest sector was synonymous with crime and conflict.