EU efforts to save rainforests falling flat

By Lorraine Mallinder

Date: 24/05/06

The outlook for the preservation of the world's ancient forests is gloomy. Primary forests in Latin America, the Congo and south-east Asia are dwindling at the rate of six million hectares per year, an area equivalent to twice the size of Belgium. Moreover, a fifth of all flora and fauna in these forests could disappear by 2030.

The European Commission's communication on biodiversity, released this week (22 May), signals that efforts to address the impact of the timber trade on tropical forests are still in their infancy. It concedes that measures to curb unsustainable production and consumption patterns have produced "few concrete results for biodiversity to date".

According to Sébastien Risso, forests policy adviser at Greenpeace, half of Europe's timber imports are estimated to come from illegal sources, with China acting as an intermediary agent, processing timber from primary forests around the world. He stresses that the EU, a major consumer of products made of timber, urgently needs to implement binding measures to ensure imported wood in the form of manufactured products is from legal and sustainable sources.

While the Commission appears to leave no stone unturned when it comes to documenting and monitoring the scale of the problem, it seems unable to implement the policies needed to reverse the trend, say environmentalists. Risso is unsurprised, pointing out that measures are based on "incentives to the private sector and voluntary mechanisms".

"The main difficulty is poor governance in countries concerned," says Amadeu Altafaj, European Commission development spokesman, defending the Commission's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade programme. Adopted in July 2004, it aims to address the problem of illegal logging. The action plan is a voluntary partnership agreement.

"If you take the forest of the Congo River Basin, it is a problem of lack of proper controls on the ground. Up to now, we have provided EUR 20 million in assistance to strengthen the control mechanisms. Should the agreement now deliver what we expect, we could look at other mechanisms," Altafaj adds.

But Risso says that "trade and consumer practices are driving deforestation". "The question is: which is more important for the EU, trade liberalisation or biodiversity loss?" he asks.

"The debate is absolutely legitimate," Altafaj responds. "It's a real debate about striking a balance. Developing countries deserve better access to markets in general. At the same time, this is not opposed to sustainable development and improved governance."

Tackling deforestation is closely linked with the battle against global warming, a prospect which looms ever more large over an ailing world. Rainforests continuously recycle a substantial proportion of the world's carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20% of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest, dubbed the lungs of the world.

Article takes a look at what the European Commission says on the impact of the timber trade on tropical forests in its Communication on biodiversity, released on 22 May 2006.
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'Biodiversity'.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Environment: Policies: Nature and Biodiversity http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/index_en.htm

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