Civil Society in Russia and ENA FLEG Dr. Evgeny Shvarts WWF Russia / Director of Conservation Policy 21 February 2005 Role of Conservation NGOs

Civil Society: Main Players in ENA FLEG Conservation NGOs Social NGOs Business

NGO Vision on ENA FLEG: Essential Principles of Success 1. Analysis of successes and weakness of previous FLEG processes (Asia, Africa) 2. Involving civil society into preparation and development of ENA FLEG process. 3. Realization of Action Plan after Ministerial Conference under control of civil society

Problems in Russian Forestry: Forest Governance and Legislation 1. Lack of clearly structured legally-binding forest policies and strategies to generate nation- wide long-term benefits. 2. Inadequate and weak institutional framework 3. Utilitarian and non-economics based (oriented only to volume of timber) approach to forest resource use. 4. High level of corruption and lack of transparency in decision making processes

EU FLEGT and NGOs:Joint Documents Letter to President Romano Prodi Subject: European Commission Measures to Combat Illegal Timber Trade Green groups draft EU legislation to outlaw illegal wood imports PRINCIPLES FOR FLEGT PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS FERN, Greenpeace and WWF comments on the draft Council Regulation concerning the establishment of a voluntary FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community Etc.

EU FLEGT and NGOs: Joint Statement SIGNATURES: 165 NGOs 22 INDIVIDUALS CONTROLING TIMBER IMPORTS INTO THE EU JOINT NGO STATEMENT

Russia: National Conservation NGOs Elaboration of Joint Position on ENA FLEG ЭКОДАЛЬ

NGO Planned Actions: Civil Society Involvement 1. Seminar in St.Petersburg February 2. Seminar in Khabarovsk, 2-4 March “Forest business and ENA FLEG” Moscow, 23 March

NGO Planned Actions: Informational support

NGO Planned Actions: Highlighting Problems 3-4 Publication on illegal logging and related issues in several regions of Russia Spring issue of “Sustainable Forestry” magazine will be dedicated ENA FLEG

Conservation NGOs Major Points of Concern: Conservation NGOs Major Points of Concern: Civil society and NGO involvement in ENA FLEG process Existence of an effective national forest guard service on the local level Transparency and public access to information Public (stakeholders, local population and NGOs) involvement into decision making process in forest management practice Execution of existing legal environmental requirements (EIA, etc) in practice

WWF Vision: Priority Points Development and legal adoption of National Forest Policy to ensure SFM Provide legal and economic incentives to move part of state responsibilities to forest lease holders (through voluntary forest certification, tracing systems, etc) Agree international measures to ensure that effective actions be undertaken to clean the supply chain from timber products of illegal or suspicious origins Unify the ENA-FLEG terminology (illegal logging, illegal timber trade, etc.), timber measurement methods and qualitative parameters meant for customs processing