A workshop on Russian and European Union Initiatives to Combat Trade in Illegally Harvested Timber and Its Processing Products was organized on March 26, 2010, in Moscow at the Russian Chamber of Commerce by WWF with support of the World Bank and IUCN. The purpose of this workshop was to consider latest developments in the forest legislation and enforcement in the Russian Federation as well as new legislative initiatives launched by the European Union to combat trade in illegally harvested timber and its processing products together with the private sector initiatives aimed at ensuring timber legality. Also discussed were potential problems and opportunities for the Russian forest sector.

The meeting gathered over 85 participants, including representatives from the European Commission, Russian State Duma, Russian Federal and Regional Forestry Agencies, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ministry for Agriculture and Ministry for Economic Development, Nature Protection Prosecutors Service, regional administrations, businesses, academia and NGOs. The workshop was also attended by representatives of the governments and NGOs from Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova.

Agenda of this workshop covered a broad range of issues related to the FLEG problems, including illegal logging, administrative and other barriers hampering legal forest businesses development, forest certification, rights of local citizens to access related information and legally utilize forest resources. Such a high level event demonstrated true interest of all stakeholders in uniting and coordinating their efforts to increase efficiency of the Russian forest-related legislation as well as continue consultations with the European counterparts on this issue.

18/04/2010