Australia, the United States and the European Union governments are making huge efforts in enforce laws as to stop the illegal timber from entering their countries.
According to the EU's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), starting October 2015 to March 2016, 14 Members States (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and one Member State that preferred not to be identified), together with Australia officials already checked 495 company sites, while reviewing 955 due diligence systems.
During the mentioned period, 396 corrective action requirements were issued, while 4 injunctions and 55 sanctions were applied. Timber products from 15 sources or processing countries (among which China, Brazil, Cameroon, Myanmar, and the Republic of Congo) created the main issues for which the sanction were applied.
“I hope that over time more European agencies will be able to report in the same way so that we can build up a detailed picture of the sanctions that are facing illegal operators, and the way that the sector is changing,” said Jade Saunders, a Senior Policy Analyst at Forest Trends.
The enforcement agencies also checked the timber importers, pulp and paper importers, furniture importers and domestic forest producers, according to FLEGT. 50% of all the inspections and corrective actions were related to timber importers.
