Memorandum by The Environmental Investigation
Agency (EIA)
1. The Environmental Investigation Agency
(EIA) is a UK-based non-governmental organisation. EIA is dedicated
to exposing and combating environmental crime. Since its inception
in 1984 it has pioneered investigative techniques to documents
three major categories of environmental crime; illegal logging
and trade in illicit timber, wildlife trafficking, and smuggling
of environmentally-harmful chemicals.
2. EIA has spent 10 years documenting illegal
logging and trade in stolen timber. This work has involved field
investigations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand,
Laos, China, Honduras, the US and European Union. In addition
to investigations EIA has carried out comprehensive capacity building
for local NGOs and communities across Indonesia. EIA has been
involved in both the development of the EU's Forest Law Enforcement,
Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, and the recent amendment
to the US Lacey Act which criminalises the importation and sale
of illegally-logged timber and wood products.
3. EIA's unique experience of the illegal
logging issue leaves it well placed to provide pertinent information
to the inquiry. EIA will limit its submission to two elements
of the inquiry:
— Government progress on tackling illegal
timber since the EAC 2006 Report on sustainable timber.
— The success or otherwise of the EU
FLEGT Action Plan, and Government support for it.
4. Illegal logging is recognised as a major
global environmental problem. The World Bank estimates that illegal
logging costs developing countries £7.5 billion a year through
theft of public assets and non-payment of taxes. Illegal logging
is a major driver of tropical deforestation; globally forest loss
is the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions
after the energy sector. Indonesia has the world's worst deforestation
rate and at the beginning of the decade had an illegal logging
rate of 80%. Such drastic forest loss led Indonesia to be ranked
as the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2006. Illegal
logging threatens biodiversity; recent data shows that almost
80% of primates in South-East Asia are threatened with extinction,
and habitat loss is a major cause. In addition illegal logging
robs rural communities of resources and livelihoods, and fosters
corruption and weak governance.
5. Illegal logging in producer countries
such as Indonesia is directly driven by demand for cheap wood
products in major consumer markets like the EU and US. Yet efforts
to curtail the worldwide trade in illegally-logged timber are
continually undermined by the absence of a legal framework in
importing countries to interdict shipments of illegally-logged
timber. While progress has been made in combating illegal logging
in some producer countries, notably Indonesia, the major consumers
of wood products have failed to close their markets to illicit
timber.
6. The exception is the US. In May 2008
the US government amended its Lacey Act, effectively outlawing
the importation or sale of any timber or wood product which has
been logged or transported in contravention of another country's
laws. Penalties under the revised act range from confiscation
of goods to a prison sentence, depending on the severity of the
offence.
7. The EU has failed to implement market
controls like those adopted in the US. Under its FLEGT Action
Plan the EU envisaged two responses to the problem of illegal
logging; Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) with producer
countries and consideration of additional legislative options
to control imports of illegally-logged timber.
8. The UK has been a major supporter of
the VPA process, under which partner countries undertake to only
supply timber verified legal to the EU market. EIA believes that
VPAs represent a progressive policy solution to tackle illegal
logging in producer countries. The VPA process has the potential
to reform forest governance in producer countries. For instance
in Indonesia the VPA consultation process to date has been transparent
and inclusive, with unprecedented participation from civil society.
EIA commends the UK government for its support of VPAs.
9. In terms of additional legislative options,
the European Commission has repeatedly failed to produce a draft
policy, as requested by the Council of Ministers. While the FLEGT
Action Plan has been progressively tackling illegal logging in
several producer countries under the VPA negotiations, it has
manifestly failed to take the necessary measures to exclude illegally-logged
timber from the EU market. Such a failure could undermine the
effectiveness of VPAs; for instance if Indonesia signed such a
VPA, the agreement could be circumvented simply by smuggling timber
from Indonesia to China and then into the EU. Indonesia has expressly
requested that the EU introduce a new regulation to ban imports
of illegally-logged timber during VPA negotiations.
10. Within the EU, the UK is a major importer
of illegally-logged timber and wood products. In 2006 it is estimated
that the EU imported around £2 billion worth of illegally-sourced
wood, with the UK importing 3.2 million cubic metres of stolen
wood, worth around £700 million. In 2007 EIA published a
briefing document called "Receiving Stolen Goods" calling
for the UK to take unilateral action to halt such imports (copy
supplied).
11. In its 2006 report the Environmental
Audit Committee (EAC) supported the notion of legislation at the
UK level if the EU fails to act. The EAC report stated: If the
government wants to be taken seriously on its commitment to help
protect the world's forests it must introduce as a matter of urgency
legislation to prevent illegal timber and timber products from
entering the UK market." Two years later the EU has demonstrably
failed to act, and the UK government has not brought forward legislation.
12. Meanwhile illegally-logged timber continues
to flow into the UK. In September 2008 EIA carried out a random
survey of retailers selling flooring made from merbau timber in
the UK. Merbau is a luxurious tropical timber species only found
in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Most remaining merbau
on the island of New Guinea, which contains the last intact frontier
forests in the Asia-Pacific region. EIA's investigations have
revealed a high degree of illegality in the felling and trade
of merbau. When EIA staff, posing as customers, called 16 retailers
selling merbau flooring, not a single one could prove the legality
of the merbau. In several cases the merbau was being sourced from
known timber smugglers in Indonesia.
13. EIA believes that the time has come
for the UK to demonstrate its commitment to protecting the world's
dwindling rainforests by implementing legislation to outlaw the
sale and distribution of illegally-sourced timber. A possible
template for such legislation already exists in the form of a
Private Member's Bill called the "Illegally Logged Timber
(Prohibition of Sale and Distribution) Bill put forward by Barry
Gardiner MP. The UK government should support the measures in
this bill as a matter of urgency, and take steps to ensure that
UK consumers are not unwitting accomplices to the crime of illegal
logging.
14. EIA would be available to provide oral
testimony to the inquiry is required.
10 October 2008
| 
