EU Forest Watch

Contents:

• New Environmental Clause in EU Generalised System of Preferences
• Evaluation of EC Aid
• Commission Adopts Biodiversity Strategy
• Congo Basin Forest Policy Dialogue
• New Paper on Indigenous Peoples and Development
• EU Forest Agenda

New Environmental Clause in EU Generalised System of Preferences

A new proposal for a Regulation adopted by the European Commission is to grant additional tariff preferences to developing countries applying certain social and environmental standards. This environmental and social incentive regime will be applied within the framework of the EU Generalised System of Preferences (GSP)¹. It is expected to be approved by the Council in March or April.

Relevance to forests

The environmental conditions will apply only to forests. This is because at present governments recognise environmental standards only for tropical forests, in the form of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management (currently under revision).

Imports of unprocessed timber and sawnwood to the EU are mostly tariff-free at the moment. Therefore the scheme will reduce tariffs on processed timber products.

To be eligible for tariff cuts, exporting countries implementing ITTO standards would have to apply to the Commission. Compliance with the standards would be monitored from Brussels. NGOs and other interest groups would be allowed to comment before any additional tariff concessions were granted.

Background²

The GSP was established in 1970 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Donor countries implement different schemes based on its principles. The EU grants lower tariff access to imports from some developing countries, principally from Asia and Latin America. Asian Least Developed Countries benefit from zero duty access for all products covered by the GSP. Countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific already benefit from a more advantageous scheme under the Lomé Convention.

Implications of the new proposal

The main beneficiaries of the proposal for wood products would be Indonesia (plywood), and to a lesser extent the Philippines, Malaysia and Brazil.

If all countries take up the incentive scheme, it will cost the EU 788 MECU in lost revenue.

NGO Comments

At present it is unclear how the EU will ensure that sustainable forest management is applied.

The fact that the Commission officially adopts the criteria of the ITTO rather than the FSC is significant.

1. Proposal for a Council Regulation "applying the special incentive arrangements concerning labour rights and environmental protection ... in the scheme of generalised tariff preferences in respect of certain industrial and agricultural products originating in developing countries", COM (97) 534 final

2. See also new Fern briefing note on GSP.

Evaluation of EC Aid

The final report on the 'Evaluation of the Environmental Performance of EC Programmes in Developing Countries' is now out¹. The report was commissioned by DG VIII (Development) of the European Commission but covers projects funded by both DG VIII and IB. It excludes tropical forest projects, which are being evaluated separately (see EU Forest Watch 16).

Main findings of the report

The evaluation is highly critical of the EC's environmental performance in aid projects. It makes clear that as the second biggest multilateral donor it lags behind other major multilateral donors like the World Bank in its environmental procedures.

The report also stresses that good policies by the EU fail to result in good projects due to a lack of coherent political objectives and no clear allocation of tasks between the different DGs of the Commission.

The report concludes that:

¨ there is a lack of environmental expertise in key positions in the European Commission,

¨ the ratio of funds managed to number of staff is upto 7 times higher than in the World Bank,

¨ due to a late introduction of environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures, of the several thousand projects funded before 1996, only 33 had an EIA.

NGOs hope that some of the report's recommendations on biodiversity projects will be included in the Development Action Plan of the EU Biodiversity Strategy (see overleaf).

1. Available from Fern.

Commission Adopts Biodiversity Strategy

On 4 February the European Commission adopted an EU Biodiversity Strategy in the form of a Communication to the Council and Parliament¹.

The final Communication no longer requires a Forest Action Plan². Instead, its objectives on European forests will be integrated into the EU Forest Strategy. These include:

• to develop Regulation 2080 on afforestation of agricultural land and enhance its benefits to biodiversity;

• to ensure that afforestation to combat climate change does not have negative ecological impacts;

• to promote sustainable management of forests and restoration of degraded areas, using local and native species where appropriate;

• to develop methods for evaluating the impact of chosen forest management techniques on biodiversity;

• to promote implementation of Helsinki guidelines for the conservation of biodiversity (Resolution H2) and IPF recommendations.

Many objectives in the Development and Economic Cooperation section are also relevant to forests. These will form the basis of an Action Plan to be developed within two years by DGs IA, IB and VIII:

• to mainstream biodiversity objectives into development strategies, policy dialogue, and development projects in all sectors;

• to support sustainable use of natural resources;

• to further integrate EIA practices into development cooperation;

• to provide sufficient funding for bilateral aid programmes and international mechanisms dealing with biodiversity.

1. Available from Fern.

2. For more background, see EU Forest Watch 15 and new briefing note on the EU Biodiversity Strategy and Habitats Directive.

Congo Basin Forest Policy Dialogue

Government representatives from six Congo Basin countries met in Brussels from 20 to 23 January to plan activities for the Forest Policy Dialogue Programme, which is funded by the Commission and the World Bank's Economic Development Institute (see Forest Watch 19). WWF, IUCN and other donors were invited as observers.

The six countries agreed on three areas to be addressed in order to develop a sustainable forest policy:

• forest management plans,

• adding value to forest resources through local processing,

• participation of all forest users in forest management.

Phase 1 of the Programme will therefore include:

• a workshop on sustainable management and wood processing,

• two field trips (one in the region and one to Latin America),

• a workshop on a regional forest policy to be developed by 2010.

Participants requested that representatives of the African Timber Organisation and Brazzaville Process be involved in future events. Participants also asked for resources to enable them to participate in international forest meetings.The European Commission was in favour of granting this.

New Paper on Indigenous Peoples and Development

The European Commission has sent out a draft working paper¹ on indigenous peoples and development cooperation for comments. The paper is intended to be used as the basis for a Council Resolution, to be approved at the earliest at the Development Council of 18 May.

This will be the first EC policy framework focusing exclusively on indigenous peoples.

1. Copies available from Birgitte Feiring, European Commission DG VIII-A2, Fax: +32-2-2967141, Birgitte.Feiring@dg8.cec.be.

Deadline for comments: 18 March 1998.

EU Forest Agenda

• 9 March: European Working Group on Timber Chain of Custody (ETC), Brussels

• 13 March: European Forestry Institute conference on Potential markets for certified forest products, Brussels

• 12-13 March: open-ended meeting to prepare 5th Preparatory M eeting of Lisbon Conference, Lisbon

• 23 March: Environment Council, Brussels. Agenda includes preparation for CBD CoP-4 and CSD VI.

• 27-29 March: Forest Movement Europe annual meeting, Amsterdam