THEMATIC PROGRAMME ON
FOREST LAW ENFORCEMENT, GOVERNANCE AND TRADE
Programme Profile
RATIONALE AND CONTEXT
Illegal activities in the forest sector continue to add to the degradation of forests andundermine the contribution of the forest sector to employment generation and social andeconomic development and poverty alleviation. An unknown volume of timber is illegally
felled, processed and traded. Forest operations conducted outside the law may under-value
the resource on which they are based, resulting in the degradation of the resource and a lackof optimal socioeconomic benefits for local people. Several factors contribute to theoccurrence of illegal timber harvesting, such as an ineffective policy and legal framework, alack of enforcement capacity, insufficient data about the forest resource and illegal
operations, and a high demand for cheap timber. Cooperation between producer andconsumer countries is needed.
The International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), negotiated in 2006, includes
commitments to: strengthening the capacity of members to improve forest law enforcement
and governance and address related trade in tropical timber; improving the marketing anddistribution of tropical timber and timber product exports from sustainably managed andlegally harvested sources; contributing to sustainable development and poverty alleviation;and recognizing the role of forest-dependent indigenous and local communities in achieving
sustainable forest management and developing strategies to enhance the capacity of thesecommunities to sustainably manage timber-producing forests.
In 2007 the Council approved a pilot of the TFLET Thematic Programme. The objectives ofthat pilot, as well as the projects and activities under implementation, will be integrated into
the Thematic Programmes to be developed under this profile, taking into account theadministrative arrangements put in place for the existing programme.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
The general objective of the Thematic Programme is to improve national forest law
enforcement and governance in tropical ITTO member countries in order to enhance anddiversify international trade in tropical timber from sustainably managed forests and to help
alleviate poverty in those countries.
PROGRAMME STRATEGY
The strategy to reach the objective contains several elements: (i) respond to the needs ofproducer members and local communities to improve forest governance; (ii) enhance thetransparency and effective management of supply chains; and (iii) public-private partnerships
between governments, the private sector, Civil Society Organizations and local communities
are enhanced to create strong networks to discourage illegal forest activities.
ANTICIPATED OUTPUTS/OUTCOMES•

Enhanced capacity of forest-dependent and local communities to improve governanceand sustainably manage their forests in order to alleviate their poverty;•Enhanced capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises in harvesting, processing
and handling timber from legally and sustainably managed sources;•Increased market opportunities for legally and sustainably produced timber fromtropical forests by supporting business-to-business initiatives;•Enhanced capacity of trade associations and civil-society organizations, in particular
those representing local groups and workers in the forest sector, to be involved andactively participate in the development and implementation of policies and programmeson tropical forest management and timber trade;•Policies and programmes to improve forest law enforcement and governance,
contributing to the implementation of international objectives as agreed in the ITTA,UNFF, FAO, CITES, CBD and UNFCCC, as well as relevant partnership arrangements;•Information exchange among stakeholders as well as the identification ofcommonalities and horizontal elements in policies and programmes to improve forest
law enforcement and governance; and•Better enforcement of forest laws and regulations through chain of custody and tracking
and tracing systems such as fingerprinting methods and improved verification andmonitoring procedures.

The approach to be taken in this proposed Thematic Programme will complement ITTO’s
work on policy and transparency by intensifying its work with government, private-sector andcivil-society actors. The programme will encourage and facilitate partnerships between
government agencies, civil-society organizations and private companies to, on the one hand,increase the involvement of local communities in forest management, production and benefitsharing and, on the other, improve market access for forest products.
POTENTIAL PARTNERS AND COLLABORATING AGENCIESThe Thematic Programme will enhance public-private partnerships between relevant
stakeholders, including governments, the private sector and civil-society organizations, taking
into account the specific concerns and needs of local and indigenous communities depending
heavily on the conservation and sustainable use of tropical forest resources as well as thesustainable use of timber and non-timber forest products.
The main actors in the forest sector are national government forestry agencies, nationalgovernment forest law enforcement agencies, national-level civil-society, and private-sector
organizations, companies, local cooperatives and community administrations, and small andmedium-sized forest enterprises.
The intermediary beneficiaries are a diverse group of national-level and local organizations.
The primary target group comprises national governments. The secondary target groups are
the trade associations and civil-society organizations, the private sector and research
institutions. The ultimate target groups are the producers and the end-users. The programme
will be demand-driven and flexible, so that potential beneficiaries can, in consultation withITTO and other stakeholders, determine the exact nature of the activities they undertake
through the programme.
INDICATIVE BUDGET
The total indicative budget of the Thematic Programme is US$15 million, of which US$12million would be for country-level activities and US$3 million for regional and internationallevel activities.
TFLET pilot phase already pledged
Balance
TOTAL
POTENTIAL DONORS

US$ 4,800,000
US$ 10,200,000
US$ 15,000,000

The governments of the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, USA, Australia, New Zealand,
Finland, Norway and Korea have already pledged contributions to the thematic programmepilot phase totalling US$4.8 million.