Forest Law Enforcement and Governance in Central Asia Kassel Project financed by the European Union The objective: Promotion of legal and sustainable forest management and utilisation practices strengthens the rule of law, tackles the growing problem of illegal forest activities and enhances local livelihoods.

X It is not a project to force change What is FLEG? FLEG stands for Forest Law Enforcement and Governance; is an international, participatory process initiated by the European Union, World Bank and other international organisations to elaborate and implement policies and practices aiming:  to ensure sustainable forest management;  to combat illegal activities and associated timber trade. The EU’s wider objective is to encourage sustainable forest management!

Backgrounds: National Forest Programme (NFP, IPF ) => serves as framework to put international agreements into praxis for the promotion of SFM as country-driven implementation of SFM and forest-related contribution to sustainable development, support by multilateral and bilateral cooperation and donor support. EU FLEGT Action Plan (May 2003) => develop and implement measures to address illegal logging and related trade (primarily through Voluntary Partnership Agreements with timber producing countries). ENA FLEG (St. Petersburg Declaration, November 2005) => nearly 300 participants representing 43 governments, the private sector, civil society and international organisations agreed to the Saint Petersburg Declaration on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance in Europe and North Asia (ENA) (includes an indicative list of actions).

Indicative list of actions according to the St. Petersburg Declaration: Mobilize high-level political commitment and establish Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) … Review and as needed update forest legislation and regulations … Strengthen, as needed, inter-agency cooperation as well as human and institutional capacity … Assess, identify and develop strategies to address the underlying causes of illegal logging, associated trade and corruption, the unauthorized extraction of wood for local consumption as well as the unauthorized exploitation of protected forest areas, threatening biodiversity; Formulate … concrete actions under clearly defined targets, including monitoring of progress in implementation … Recognize the rights of forest dependent communities by taking into consideration customary laws and practices … and encourage and promote the participation of indigenous people and the local population Engage stakeholders, including indigenous people, local communities, private forest owners, NGOs and the industry, in formulation of forest laws and policies and in their implementation through an open and participatory process, thereby promoting transparency, reducing corruption, facilitating equity and minimizing undue influence of privileged groups; Develop and implement anti-corruption tools dealing with corruption in and impacting on the forest sector in line with general anti-corruption efforts, including codes of conduct and best practices … Collect and disseminate transparent information on forest resources, their allocation and exploitation, in a form readily accessible to the public; Monitor and disclose data on domestic and international trade flows of timber and timber products and promote … the establishment of third party audited traceability systems; Inform and engage all stakeholders to enhance public awareness on the scope, scale and significance of illegal logging, associated trade and corruption, and their negative impacts on the benefits forests provide to society.

How to proceed?  FLEG is a government-driven process with four major steps: 1) Analyse shortcomings and obstacles, 2) improve capacities for the implementation of effective forest governance, 3) improve legal framework, and 4) develop a FLEG Action Plan. Roadmap to FLEG

The actual working process?  Establishment of FLEG country teams (focal point, working group and project coordinator)  Review of legal framework and challenges  Development of project roadmaps  Training session: “Development of FLEG AP”  Development of a draft FLEG AP

A) FLEG AP development (JK) Training session for FLEG CT (each country 3-4 days WS for the draft) What exactly is a FLEG AP, what does it comprise? How to develop a draft? Recommended input as example Example FLEG AP Country-specific input Development of a FLEG AP draft What are the next steps, how to “activate” it Follow-up B) Legal Framework improvement, key- procedure identification (Stoll, HF) Intensive work-out with HF specialist S. Stoll and FLEG CT (at least a week per country) Review of legal framework Analysis of missing links / contradicting regulations Recommendation for improvements Proposal for key-procedures under FLEG Follow-up C) Regional arrangements (HF, GIZ) Support for regional arrangements (regional meetings for 2-4 days) Facilitation of first regional exchange for FLEG CTs Facilitation of FLEG- topic exchange Support for further regional networking D) Capacity building (HF) Two-fold: Specified missions for supporting key-procedures (also specified by country and especially FLEG AP- challenges) “on-the-job” like “FLEG AP development” for FLEG CT Follow-up E) Transparency / private sector / civil society (HF) Again, two-fold: Specified missions for supporting key- procedures (specified by country and FLEG AP-challenges) “on-the-job” like “FLEG AP development” for FLEG CT What exactly is “transparency” in forest admin Who to be involved and why How to “provide transparency” Follow-up F) exchange visit (HF) “Expert negotiations” study tour of members from all countries to Bulgaria and Germany (about a week)

Thank you! Dr Joachim Krug Senior Forestry Expert FLERMONECA FLEG Component Coordinator Hessen-Forst International Consulting Services