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Forest Governance and Trade Programme

Forest Governance and Trade Programme (2006-2011)

Malasia: Illegally sourced ramin logs from Indonesia in front of a truck before being loaded with more illagal Indonesian wood.Image courtesy of Environmental Investigation Agency

DFID’s Forest Governance and Trade Programme is a five-year, £24 million programme that aims to tackle the problems of illegal logging in developing countries and the associated international trade in illegally logged timber. Its main activity is supporting reforms in countries that enter Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with the European Union under the External linkForest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. These agreements will establish a licensing system to ensure timber exported from signatory countries to the EU has been legally produced, as well as supporting implementation of relevant forest sector reforms.

VPA negotiations with Malaysia, Ghana, Indonesia and Cameroon and Congo are currently underway.

This work is complemented by co-operation with the private sector to promote trade in forest products from legal and well-managed sources, as well as collaboration with other major timber importing countries to influence the demand for products from responsibly managed forests.

The programme is being implemented through grants to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and consulting contracts to undertake work that supports the programme’s aims.

Activities in support of VPAs focus on Africa and Asia, with regional budgets of £12 million and £7 million respectively. The remaining £5 million is earmarked for support for policy research, communications and advocacy work related to tackling illegal logging and forest governance issues.

Africa Regional Programme

Asia Regional Programme

Policy Research, Communications and Advocacy

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Africa Regional Programme

Total budget: £12,000,000
Total grants and contracts to August 2008: £2,530,467

  • Ghana FLEGT VPA Support
    £257,000; Mar 2007-Mar 2011
    A grant to the Ghana Forestry Commission to prepare for FLEGT negotiations. Work focuses on development of a definition of legal timber; assessment of the potential impacts of a VPA; and co-ordination of process support structures. This includes co-ordination, networking and participant skills upgrading in the VPA Secretariat; effective consultation and civil society capacity building; and development of an effective communications strategy.
  • FLEGT Multi-stakeholder Consultations in Central Africa
    £540,000; Jan 2007-Dec 2009
    A grant to IUCN to support multi-stakeholder engagement in the development of FLEGT Partnership Agreements in Africa. Work will focus on Ghana, Liberia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon; and the trade linkages between these countries and China. It aims to foster, catalyze and reinforce informed multi-stakeholder negotiation and implementation of nationally-defined priority actions that support VPAs.
  • Liberia land tenure and community forest advocacy
    £66,831; Jan-Dec 2007
    A grant to the Sustainable Development Initiative, a Liberian NGO, to work with communities in key forest regions and members of the NGO’s Coalition for Liberia to ensure that enabling regulations provided for under the National Forestry Reform Law adequately address community rights issues including participation, benefit sharing, ownership, access and users rights in the forest sector. “So Who Owns the Forest?”, a report from this work, was published in November 2007.

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  • Forest Transparency Initiative in Central Africa
    Initial phase: £50,000; 2007, completed. Implementation phase: £507,226; May 2008-Sep 2010
    A grant to the World Resources Institute (WRI) to facilitate stronger governance in Central Africa’s forestry sector by making accurate and up-to-date forest sector information publicly available. It aims to build multi-stakeholder partnerships to increase transparency and accountability in the sector and drive sustainable forest management and equitable distribution of forest benefits.
    Coverage includes: (i) provision and dissemination of information related to industrial forest management; (ii) provision and dissemination of information related to collection, distribution and use of government forest sector revenues; (iii) development of government capacity to collect, manage and use forest industry information; (iv) increasing the visibility of forestry companies that have committed to transparency and sustainable forest management; and (v) provision of information to consuming countries, companies and individuals seeking to source tropical wood products responsibly. 
  • Support for VPA preparations in Liberia
    £132,303; Nov 2007-October 2008
    Engagement of specialist services to assist with preparatory activities for a VPA in Liberia and provision of advice to the European Commission and other potential donors.
  • FLEGT Facilitator, Ghana
    £804,715; Sep 2007-Aug 2010
    A consultancy contract to support the European Commission’s Delegation in Accra, the Government of Ghana and national stakeholders as they prepare for and implement Ghana’s FLEGT VPA.
  • Forest decentralisation in Africa
    £50,000; 2008
    A grant to support a workshop on decentralisation of forest administration in Africa under the auspices of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) in Durban, South Africa, in April 2008.

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Asia Regional Programme

Total budget: £7,000,000
Total grants and contracts to August 2008: £3,299,694

  • Indonesia FLEGT VPA Preparation
    £100,000; Jan-Jun 2007
    Support to prepare transition from DFID’s Indonesia Multistakeholder Programme (2000-2006) to a new programme focused on implementing a FLEGT VPA and related activities.
  • East Asia regional enforcement co-operation
    £114,000; Apr 2007-Mar 2008
    A grant to Traffic International as contribution to a regional project to develop mechanisms to enhance cooperation between national border control agencies in Asia in tackling illegal trade in timber products. The primary objective is to develop a regional framework in East Asia for co-operation between border control agencies and reciprocal learning from national policy responses to control trade in timber, with focus on the major timber exporting and importing countries in the region.
  • FLEGT Facilitator, Indonesia
    £879,621; Nov 2007-Oct 2010
    A consultancy contract to support to the European Commission’s Delegation in Jakarta, the Indonesian Government and stakeholders prepare for and implement Indonesia’s FLEGT VPA. Assistance with oversight of DFID’s Forest Governance and Trade funding for Indonesia.

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  • Indonesia Forest Governance and Multistakeholder Forestry Programme
    £1,883,900; Sep 2007-Sep 2010
    Funding channelled through a contracted Service Provider, External linkKehati (the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation), to administer grants and contracts that support forest governance reform. Focus is on negotiation and implementation of Indonesia’s VPA; strengthening government-civil society partnerships at local and national levels to build capacity and empower community-based forestry; and working with stakeholders to identify and implement governance reforms necessary for implementing REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).
  • Avoided Deforestation Proposals
    £125,000; Aug-Dec 2007
    Support to the Government of Indonesia to prepare proposals on Reduced Emissions from Avoided Deforestation.
  • Support for Chinese Government Officials to visit the UK
    £54,375; Jul-Oct 2008
    Support for two officials from the Chinese State Forest Administration (SFA) to visit the UK in autumn 2008 to give them a better understanding of why forest governance, illegal logging and trade in illegally sourced timber has political importance in Europe. It will give them the opportunity to learn: (i) what the UK and the EU are doing about it through supply and demand side measures; (ii) the nature of the international forest products trade and trends; (iii) public procurement policies; (iv) how verification of legality relates to certification of sustainability; and (iv) private sector (timber trade) views and responses. The officials are expected to spend time in British Government departments (DFID and Defra), attend suitable training courses and attend relevant meetings. This forms part of collaboration between China and the UK agreed under the Sustainable Development Dialogue.
  • Monitoring timber trade flows in East Asia
    £200,000; Apr 2008 – Mar 2010
    A grant to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) to monitor cross-border flows of illegally-sourced timber in East Asia, and investigate linkages to end markets in the EU. Information generated by the project will be provided to relevant enforcement agencies and disseminated widely through briefings to governments and the media where appropriate. The work will: (i) provide a regular and reliable flow of intelligence on routes and methods used to trade illicit timber; (ii) develop an effective network of civil society organisations able to monitor timber flows and share information; and (iii) promote improved collaboration between civil society organisations and governmental enforcement agencies to combat trade in illicit timber.
  • China forest trade trends workshop
    £75,000; May 2007-Feb 2008
    Support for a workshop held in September 2007 aimed at developing a common understanding on major scenarios on supply and trade trends between China and its major suppliers in order to better inform decision-makers on the implications of these trends. This followed a programme of work by Forest Trends and Chinese research institutions, jointly funded by DFID and SIDA, on trends in the Chinese forest sector and implications for the regional timber trade. A report of findings and related work supported by DFID is available on External linkForest Trends’s web site.
  • Support for the Asian Forest Partnership
    £23,860; Jan-Mar 2008
    Contribution to the operation of Asia Forest Partnership (AFP) a multi-stakeholder initiative promoting sustainable forest management in Asia, for operation of its Secretariat and organisation of a dialogue on Timber Trade, Forest Law Enforcement & Governance in Hanoi in April 2008.
  • Investigation into Burma’s role in international timber trade
    £30,000; Jan-Mar 2008
    A grant to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) to prepare a longer-term project aimed at examining the role of Burma’s timber trade, in particular that with the European Union, in sustaining conflict; and to build the capacity of Burmese civil society to monitor and expose the illegal trade in timber and wood products.

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Policy Research, Communications and Advocacy

Total budget: £5,000,000
Total grants and contracts to March 2008: £2,909,382

  • Engagement of the Timber Trade
    £368,250; Dec 2006-Nov 2009
    A grant to the UK Timber Trade Federation (TTF) aimed at engaging the private sector in activities that favour trade in forest products from legal and well-managed sources. It includes collaborative work with other trade associations, developing market-based tools and communicating market changes and best practices to suppliers. TTF is working with timber trade associations from Europe and other major timber importing countries to encourage development of purchasing policies that favour legal timber.
    In Europe its efforts are encouraging recognition of FLEGT licences as assurance of legality. Activities outside the EU focus on trade associations in the US, China and Japan. Market-based tools, aimed at making responsible buying more targeted, include research into market trends for legal and sustainable timber in Europe, extending Corporate Social Responsibility for the building and finance sectors to take responsible forest management into account, development of social assessment standards and country risk rating leading to providing better advice on sourcing for timber buyers.
  • Global Forest Trade Network Ghana
    £110,000; Dec 2006-Dec 2008
    A grant to WWF Ghana is providing continued support to the Ghana Global Forest Trade Network (GFTN) Producer Group. This aims to ensure that the Producer Group members reach a standard of forest management where they can demonstrate that all their raw materials are legally produced, ultimately achieving forest certification. It will also assist dialogue between members and the communities affected by their operations in designing and implementing Social Responsibility Agreements under the terms of their Timber Utilisation Contracts. The grant will support a pilot programme to test transfer of responsibility for certain forest management functions from the government’s Forestry Commission to Producer Group members. See the External linkGFTN website for more detail.

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  • Global Forest Trade Network China
    £373,250; Feb 2007-Dec 2009
    This grant to WWF UK promotes the conservation and sustainable management of tropical, temperate and boreal forests, by assisting export-oriented timber product manufacturers in China with their purchases of raw materials. The work, carried out under the auspices of the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN), is contributing to implementation of the FLEGT Action Plan by helping manufacturers in China identify sources of timber from well-managed forests in countries where illegal logging is a problem. Participating manufacturers will be linked with buyers in major importing countries who want to specify legal and sustainable timber. See the GFTN website for more detail.
  • G8 Illegal Logging Dialogue
    £80,000; Dec 2006-Sep 2008
    A grant to the Global Legislators’ Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE) aims to support the G8 in developing solutions to tackle illegal logging. The dialogue draws legislators together from the G8, China, India and key timber-producing countries with senior timber industry representatives, Civil Society Organisations and opinion leaders. The aim is to discuss and agree practical policies and actions to address the global problem of illegal logging and poor forest management leading up to Japan’s 2008 G8 Summit. GLOBE focuses on developing four policy proposals, namely: (i) development of discerning markets in the G8 and EU for legal and sustainable timber; (ii) introduction of forest sector transparency; (iii) implementation of controls on the import of product made from illegal logs; and (iv) financing sustainable forest management and timber production. See External linkGLOBE’s website for more detail.
  • India Forest Sector Workshop
    £71,861; Sep 2006-Dec 2007
    A grant to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) to hold a workshop on forest sector information needs in India, with a view to analysing its likely supplies of and demands for timber products and potential impacts on timber-producing countries with forest governance problems.

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  • Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study
    £80,225; Oct 2006-Sep 2008
    Support to FAO Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission, to complete the South Asia section of a report on “The Future of Forests in Asia and the Pacific: Outlook for 2020”. The External linkreport was presented at a conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in October 2007.

  • Consultation & Communication
    £570,000; Jun 2006-Sep 2008
    A grant to Chatham House covering policy research, consultation and communications related to controlling illegal logging and international trade in illegally logged timber.
    Communication activities include maintenance of the website External linkwww.illegal-logging.info ; preparation of briefing papers; and regular consultations with civil society, including six-monthly updates. Policy research includes international trade rules, specific topics related to the EU FLEGT Action Plan and Voluntary Partnership Agreements, timber supply management, regulation of investments in the forest sector and certification in relation to public procurement.
    An important current activity is regular monitoring of the impacts of international efforts to tackle illegal logging and its associated trade.

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  • Promoting good governance
    £50,000; Dec 2006-Dec 2008
    A grant to FERN, an EU NGO, to support legal, institutional, and policy reform in relation to forest governance in countries which are negotiating VPAs with the EU, primarily Cameroon, Ghana and Malaysia. Special attention is being paid to local and indigenous peoples’ access to forest resources. Work is carried out in the target countries jointly with civil society organisations, namely Civic Response, Ghana, on behalf of Forest Watch Ghana; Joango Hutan, a network of Malaysian NGOs; and CED in Cameroon on behalf of the EC Forest Platform in Cameroon.
    Activities involve: support for local and national NGOs to facilitate the demands of local communities for recognition of access and tenure; creating an international network of NGOs active in advocacy work (including communications via a new web site, External linkwww.loggingoff.info), and building the capacity of local and national NGOs to ensure that national and international level advocacy work is strongly linked to grassroots experience; and informing EU Member State governments and European financial institutions about the impact of their policies and activities on (tropical) forests and forest-dependent communities and suggesting ways in which they can play a more positive role in controlling illegal logging.
  • Central Africa Transparency - Preliminary Report
    £10,509; Sep-Dec 2007; completed
    A scoping study by World Resources Institute to prepare recommendations for a forest sector transparency initiative for Central Africa as input to the GLOBE Illegal Logging Legislators’ Dialogue.

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  • Independent Monitoring in Congo
    £95,100; Apr 2007-Mar 2010
    Contribution to support for Forests Monitor to conduct a three-year External linkindependent monitoring programme in the Republic of Congo. This aims to contribute to the implementation of good forest governance and support the implementation of effective policies for sustainable development in the Congo Basin. In particular it aims to: improve state control of logging activities to increase sustainability of the forest resource and recovery of forest taxes; increase national civil society capacity to undertake Independent Monitoring; support legal, institutional and political reform in the forest sector in the Congo Basin replication of the approach; and increase transparency in corporate activities and forest law enforcement processes in the Congo Basin.

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  • FLEGT Advisory Service
    £86,678; Jan 2008-Mar 2009
    Contribution to a multi-donor trust fund to support the European Forest Institute (EFI) in providing a range of services to the EU FLEGT Action Plan. Activities include: logistical support for stakeholder meetings, national, regional and international study trips and trade promotion missions; technical, economic and legal studies; assessments of existing and proposed systems for legality verification control and independent monitoring; communication and media inputs; collection and analysis of trade statistics; support for the establishment of traceability systems; training of customs authorities in matters related to the FLEGT licensing system; and facilitation of lesson learning between countries and stakeholder groups.

  • Programme coordination
    £543,260; April 2007 – Mar 2011
    General services, including subcontracts and staff expenses to support DFID’s programmes.

Last updated: 05 August 2008