C 283/72
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
11.8.2023
Tuesday 14 February 2023
3.
Welcomes the high level of stakeholder participation throughout the negotiation process; stresses that the implementation and monitoring stages require genuine consultations and multi-stakeholder involvement, including the meaningful participation of civil society, business representatives, workers’ organisations and local and indigenous communities in decision-making to guarantee respect of land tenure rights and the ‘free, prior and informed consent’ principle; recalls the need to enhance transparency and ensure the effective public disclosure of information and the timely sharing of documents with local and indigenous peoples;
4.
Calls on the Commission and the EU Delegation in Guyana to provide sufficient capacity-building and logistical and technical support in the framework of present and future development cooperation instruments in order to enable Guyana to fulfil the commitments under the VPA;
5.
Welcomes the recent adoption of the joint implementation framework and calls on the Government of Guyana to follow a concrete, time-bound and measurable approach;
6.
Stresses the importance of developing partnerships and cooperation mechanisms to jointly address all aspects of forest governance, including as regards sharing information;
7.
Welcomes Guyana’s efforts so far in making advances towards greater transparency and looks forward to further positive cooperation in the fight against illegal logging; stresses that poor governance and corruption in the forestry sector accelerate illegal logging and forest degradation; acknowledges Guyana’s commitment to and political will as regards sound forest management; stresses that the success of the FLEGT VPA also depends on tackling fraud and corruption throughout the timber supply chain; urges the Government of Guyana to improve data collection to better implement the traceability system and to continue working to stop widespread corruption and to address other factors fuelling illegal logging and forest degradation, with particular regard to customs and other authorities who will play a pivotal role in implementing and enforcing the VPA; stresses the need to end impunity in the forest sector by protecting environmental human right defenders and whistleblowers and by ensuring effective remedies for human rights violations; welcomes, in this context, Guyana’s ratification of the Escazú Agreement and stresses the need to guarantee full recognition of the land tenure rights of local communities and indigenous peoples, notably Amerindian communities, including in the context of mining;
8.
Welcomes the fact that the process of negotiating the VPA has allowed sectors to identify shared goals and priorities to work towards sustainable forest management and trade cooperation, as well as offering an important opportunity for communities to allow for participative management of their forests at the local, community and regional levels, and even at national or federal level;
9.
Highlights that the VPA creates a great opportunity to boost job creation in the forestry sector; stresses that forest management practices and the trade in legally produced timber should be socially and economically sustainable to guarantee that people either directly or indirectly involved can benefit from trade;
10.
Calls for gender analysis to be mainstreamed into all activities and projects linked to the implementation of the VPA; calls for quantitative and qualitative gender-disaggregated analysis of land tenure, ownership of assets and financial inclusion in sectors impacted by trade; calls on the Commission to support these endeavours with technical and human resources;
11.
Asks the Commission to report to Parliament regularly on the implementation of the agreement, including on the work of the Joint Monitoring and Review Committee, with a view to enabling an informed decision once the delegated act authorising the acceptance of FLEGT licences has been proposed; stresses therefore that new VPAs with additional partners should be promoted; calls on the Commission to conduct an exhaustive assessment on the impact of the VPA and the future deforestation regulation on workers and small producers in the forest sector and other related sectors who will be affected by the increased logging controls and checks;
12.
Stresses the need to address the regional dimension of illegal logging and the transport, processing and trade of illegal timber throughout the supply chain; calls for this to be included in the VPA evaluation process;