Forest governance and COVID-19: How can FLEGT support a green recovery from the pandemic?

Human society is enduring one of the greatest global health crises of the past century: COVID-19. As the urgency of tackling the pandemic took centre stage, policy issues such as the implementation of the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan and the Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) moved into the background.

Meanwhile, logging, trade exports, manufacturing, and construction are continuing. Governments in Europe and VPA countries face a tough choice to balance the health and welfare of the population with meeting their governance and political commitments.

On 14 October 2020, Member of the European Parliament Karin Karlsbro - in collaboration with Fern, the Centre for International Development and Training, University of Wolverhampton (CIDT), the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) - hosted a webinar on the importance of sustaining momentum for FLEGT as part of a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speakers from EU institutions, timber producing countries, the private sector and civil society debated how to mitigate negative impacts the pandemic may have on governance and forest peoples’ rights, and how FLEGT can play a positive role in recovery plans.

 

Programme and presentations:

Host: Ms. Karin Karlsbro, Member of the European Parliament (Renew Europe Group), Chair of the “Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade” Monitoring Group, Fern, EIA, CIDT and WRI

Moderation: European Forest Institute and Fern

Panellists will include:

Panel 1

• Dr. Agus Justianto, Head of Forestry Research and Development, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia 
  – Deregulation and How to Tighten Checks in the Forest Sector at Times of Crisis
• Obed Owusu-Addai, Co-founder and Managing Campaigner, EcoCare Ghana
  – Lessons learned from the VPA process during COVID-19
• Chantal Marijnissen, Head of Unit C2, Environment, Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Wildlife, Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, European Commission
  - Harnessing FLEGT for a green recovery
• Q&A and discussion

Panel 2

• Benoît Jobbé-Duval, Executive Director, Association Technique Internationale des Bois Tropicaux (ATIBT)
  – Perspective from the private sector on mitigating impacts and upholding the law
• Francisco Javier Escalante, Vice-Minister of Forest Development of the Forest Conservation Institute (ICF) of the Government of Honduras
  – The FLEGT/VPA : A forest governance experience in Honduras
• Horline Njike, Secretary General, Field Legality Advisory Group and Essylot Lubala, Coordinator, Observatoire de la Gouvernance Forestière
  – Lessons learned from independent forest monitoring in times of crisis
• Daphne Hewitt, Senior Forestry Officer and Team Leader, FAO-EU FLEGT Programme
  – The Impacts of Covid-19 - Experience from the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme
• Q&A and discussion