New FERN website to launch July 2005
You might have noticed that we haven't been updating this website as often as you're used to recently. We're sorry about, and we hope that you are still finding the resources you need. The good news is that this isn't due to neglect. Quite the opposite. We've been busy working on our new improved website that will be launched in the summer - a key part of our ten-year celebrations.

The new site will bring you all the old features you rely on - with news and views on the EU institutions and forest issues around the world. And the site will still form the gateway to key features like Forest Watch and the EC Forest Platform, but it will also bring more possibilities for direct communication and for making up-to-the-minute updates to keep you informed.

We're confident you'll like the new site and we look forward to hearing your views on it. In the meantime, we will be updating this site at a minimal level so do keep watching this space ...

Live or let die? an evaluation of the fifth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests
A FERN briefing discussing the failure of UNFF5 and providing a series of recommendations for the future.
OPEN (PDF 214KB)

Finding solutions to illegal logging: civil society and the FLEGT Support Plan
FERN and Telapak outline the possibilities and limitations of the FLEGT Support Plan - an EC co-operation project aimed at tackling illegal logging and promoting the role of forests within Indonesia's sustainable development.
OPEN (PDF 239KB)

April issue of EU Forest Watch
• DG Trade talks with NGOs from the South
• Environmental degradation blocks the road to development goals
• Commission must pull its weight
• Plantations in Brazil present threat to indigenous peoples
OPEN
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Briefings and articles
• Time to measure the impacts of certification on sustainable forest management Saskia Ozinga discusses certification issues in the FAO's Unasylva journal OPEN (PDF 110KB)
• Campaign Corruption: European ECAs under scrutiny OPEN (PDF 48KB) and The Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan pipeline: exporting an environmental “timebomb” OPEN (PDF 38KB) This series of briefings aims to inform Brussels decision-makers of new developments in ECA practices at policy and project level
• Forest Loss and Human Health focuses on the interdependence between forests and human health and reflects these concerns in the policies, programmes and projects of the EU OPEN (PDF 55KB)

FERN Annual Report 2004
Find out about FERN's activities throughout 2004. Our annual report includes updates on our networking activities and campaign successes, and lists all of our publications from last year.
OPEN (pdf 1.25MB)

Louis Michel's response to the EC Forest Platform's resolution on development policy
Response from the EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid to the Joint NGO resolution (PDF40KB) and letter (PDF 98KB)
OPEN (PDF 39KB)

Joint NGO letter to Louis Michel
Letter to the EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid regarding indigenous peoples' roles in future EC development policy.
OPEN (PDF 98KB)

PUBLIC ACCESS TO ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION: European ECAs under pressure to open up
FERN/ECA-Watch press release on ECA disclosure 11.02.05.
OPEN (PDF 88KB)
For more information on the new Directive, see FERN's briefing Blood from a stone (PDF 506KB)

Controlling timber imports into the EU
Joint NGO statement.
OPEN (PDF 64KB)

Forest Focus
This FERN/TRN briefing introduces the EU's Forest Focus Regulation and discusses critical areas and opportunities for NGO participation.
OPEN (PDF 143KB)

All change: a proposal for a new instrument on development and economic co-operation
A FERN Briefing Note summarising the main elements of the Commission's recent proposal to simplify EC development aid, together with FERN's key concerns and recommendations.
OPEN (PDF 555KB)

Europe and North Asia FLEG: a key task for civil society
This FERN/TRN briefing introduces the latest development in the attempt to fight illegal logging through the global FLEG/T (Forest Law Enforcement and Governance/and Trade) initiatives. The ENA-FLEG will be launched with its first Ministerial Conference in Russia some time in 2005.
OPEN (PDF 293KB)

EU Financial Perspectives 2007-2013
Joint NGO letter to Dutch Minister for Development Co-operation, Anna van Ardenne. The letter voices common concerns over the implications of the proposed Financial Perspectives and the Commission's apparent marginalisation of the Millennium Development Goal agenda.
OPEN (PDF 44KB)