Publications

Stolen Goods: The EU’s complicity in illegal tropical deforestation

Previous studies commissioned by the EU have shown that the EU has been leading the world in imports of ‘embodied deforestation’ in the form of agricultural and timber products. This study goes a step further, by showing that the...

17/03/2015

Briefing Notes

EU consumption and illegal deforestation

Half of all tropical deforestation since 2000 has been caused by illegal clearance of forests for commercial agriculture. This briefing is a summary of Fern’s new study "Stolen Goods",  which reveals that the EU is one of the...

14/03/2015

Briefing Notes

Beyond biodiversity offsetting; trading away community rights in Gabon

This is the fourth in a series of briefing notes outlining concerns and considerations related to global proposals to offset biodiversity loss. This briefing note analyses a dangerous new proposal being discussed in Gabon for a...

10/03/2015

Report - Protecting Forests, Respecting Rights

Options for EU action on deforestation and forest degradation

01/03/2015

Briefing Notes

The most crucial challenges facing Europe’s forests

This short briefing outlines BirdLife, European Environmental Bureau and FERN recommendations for the Parliament’s own initiative report on the EU Forest Strategy.

28/11/2014

NGO Statements

Open letter to Commissioner Potočnik about biodiversity offsetting

This letter from a group of concerned organisations and individuals who believe that legislation on biodiversity offsetting being considered by the European Commission would harm nature and people, and would give power to those...

20/10/2014

Reports

Implement in haste, repent at leisure

This is the third in a series of reports in which FERN and the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) look at the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). This case study concludes that unless major changes are made in FCPF...

29/05/2014

NGO Statements

Joint NGO call to the EU to develop an Action Plan on deforestation and forest degradation

The EU’s 2013 ‘Forest Footprint’ study revealed how the bloc leads the industrialised world in driving global deforestation. The EU was the largest net importer of embodied deforestation between 1990 and 2008, significantly ahead...

26/05/2014

Reports

Community representation and participation in the VPA process

This report looks at the extent of community participation in VPA processes by considering case studies of communities from nine VPA countries.

02/05/2014

Reports

Making Forestry Fairer

It is widely accepted that in order to keep forests standing, forest policies must be fair and reflect the needs, values and rights of local communities. But turning that aspiration into reality has proved extremely difficult,...

15/04/2014