1 Jun 2010
US legislation designed to stop the trade in products from illegally logged forests appears to be working in Malaysia.
In his blog, The Zeitgeist is Changing, Dylan Tanner says the big driver is draft EU legislation based on the US Initiative Against Illegal Logging (IALL) which came into force in March last year. This allowed for companies trading in illegal timber products to be prosecuted.
The proposed EU legislation efforts is known as FLEGT - Forest Law Enforcement and Governance and Trade.
The EU imported wood products from Malaysia in 2009 worth roughly $US 500 million, making it Malaysia’s second largest forest product market after Japan. To protect this market, Malaysia is attempting to negotiate a deal on behalf of its entire industry.
It proposes that its forest product exports should be given an accelerated passage on the the strength of the country’s proposed eco-certification programme. The EU has already signed similar agreements with several African nations and talks are underway with Indonesia at present.
Predictably, NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF say that countrywide agreements will not eliminate the import of illegal product due to poor enforcement in in exporting countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
