EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 8/66

Wednesday 24 September 2008

International Tropical Timber Agreement

P6_TA(2008)0454

European Parliament resolution of 24 September 2008 on the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), 2006

2010/C 8 E/12

The European Parliament,

having regard to the draft Council Decision (11964/2007),

having regard to the Commission's Legislative and Work Programme for 2008 (COM(2007)0640),

having regard to the Food and Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) ‘Forest Products Annual Market Review’ of 2006-2007,

having regard to the ‘Review on the Economics of Climate Change’ by Sir Nicholas Stern, presented on 30 October 2006,

having regard to its resolution of 7 July 2005 on speeding up implementation of the EU action plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) (1),

having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the planning and implementation of the common commercial policy (Articles 6 and 3(1)(b) of the Treaty), since one of the key objectives of the European Community's environment policy is the promotion of measures at the international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems including the conservation and sustainable use of forest biological diversity (Article 174 of the Treaty),

B. whereas deforestation occurs at a rate of about 13 million hectares per year, including 6 million hectares of primary forests,

C. whereas deforestation is estimated to have accounted for 20 % of greenhouse gas emissions in the 1990s,

D. whereas the FAO estimates that less than 8 % of the global forest area is eco-labelled and that less than 5 % of tropical forests are managed sustainably,

E. whereas cheap imports of illegal timber and forest products, together with non-compliance with basic social and environmental standards, destabilise international markets, limit producer countries’ tax revenue and threaten higher-quality jobs in both importing and exporting countries as well as undermining the position of those companies that behave responsibly and respect existing standards,

F. whereas the inhabitants of timber producing countries should not be expected to bear the costs of preserving what is a global resource,

G. whereas the Commission Legislative and Work Programme for 2008 included a Commission Communication on measures to reduce deforestation, and a Communication with accompanying legislative proposal to prevent the placing on the EU market of illegally harvested timber and timber products,

1. Welcomes the conclusion of the ITTA, 2006 given that failure to reach agreement would have sent a damaging signal about the international community's commitment to promoting the protection and sustainable use of tropical forests; considers, nevertheless, that the outcome falls well short of what is required to address the loss of these forests;

Need for more joined-up policies

2. Calls on the Commission and Member States to significantly increase the financial resources available to enhance the conservation and ecologically responsible use of tropical forests, to support actions aimed at strengthening environmental governance and capacity-building and to promote economically viable alternatives to destructive logging, mining and agricultural practices;

3. Believes it is equally important to enhance the capacity of national parliaments and civil society, including local communities and indigenous people, to participate in decision-making regarding the conservation, use and management of natural resources, and to demarcate and defend their land rights;

4. Considers that public procurement policies should require timber and timber products to be derived from legal and sustainable sources so as to encourage public authorities’ practical commitment to good governance in forestry and to combat corruption;

5. Insists that the Commission and Member States should also work to ensure that Export Credit Agencies, the Cotonou Investment Facility and other International Lending Institutions which fund projects with EU public money use the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent before financially supporting any projects in forest areas and that environmental and social impact assessments and screening procedures for these projects are carried out to ensure that they do not encourage deforestation, forest degradation or illegal logging activity;

6. Regards labelling initiatives which enable consumers to be confident that the timber they are buying is not merely legal but originates from sustainably-managed forests as potentially usefully supplements to international agreements, provided the label is underpinned by independent verification;

7. Is concerned that voluntary agreements will be insufficient to verify that timber products placed on the EU market are from legal and sustainable sources and therefore believes that the European Union should begin to adopt legally binding standards internally accompanied by instruments for sanctioning non-compliance;

8. Emphasises that strict sustainability criteria, which take account of both direct and indirect environmental and social impacts, need to be applied to imports of agrofuels and biomass if the climatic benefits of replacing fossil fuels are not to be vastly outweighed by increased CO2 emissions arising from deforestation;

9. Calls on the Commission to ensure, through its bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, good governance of timber resources;

10. Regards the proposed trade agreement with the countries of South East Asia to be of particular importance in this respect and considers that any agreement must contain a meaningful sustainable development chapter which addresses the issues of forest preservation and the fight against illegal and unsustainable logging;

Features of a stronger, more effective agreement

11. Considers that an effective agreement on tropical timber should have, as its primary objectives, the need to ensure the protection and sustainable management of tropical forests and the restoration of forest areas that have been degraded and that trade in tropical timber should only be encouraged to the extent that it is compatible with those prior objectives;

12. Invites the Commission to develop appropriate financing mechanisms for countries that decide to give priority to the longer-term objective of promoting sustainable forests rather than maximising short-term income and to investigate the possibility of reorganising the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) voting system so as to reward timber-producing countries that give priority to the conservation and sustainable use of forest resources;

13. Believes that a future agreement should ensure that parliamentarians and civil society are involved in policy formulation and that there are provisions for independent audits of the sustainability of members’ forestry management policies and their impact on indigenous people;

Conclusions

14. Considers that the agreement requires the assent of Parliament under Article 300(3), second subparagraph, of the EC Treaty and believes that the Council and Commission should welcome the enhanced legitimacy and public acceptability that would result from greater parliamentary involvement;

15. Asks the Commission to provide annual reports on the implementation of the ITTA, 2006 as well as on measures to minimise the negative impacts from trade on tropical forests, including the consequences of Free Trade Agreements and bilateral agreements under the FLEGT programme;

16. Believes that Parliament should be fully involved and informed of the progress made at every stage of negotiations on FLEGT partnership agreements;

17. Invites the Commission to start preparing for the next round of ITTA negotiations with the objective of ensuring a greatly improved successor agreement;

18. Calls on the Commission to report regularly to Parliament on the progress of future negotiations for a successor agreement to the ITTA, 2006 so that the outcome of such negotiations commands broad support;

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19. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.

(1) OJ C 157 E, 6.7.2006, p. 482.