Changement climatique : Bruxelles fait pression pour inclure les forêts dans les discussions[en][de] 

Deforestation accounts for 20% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, whereby a lucrative global trade in illegal lumber is seen as a principal contributor to the loss of the world's tropical forest cover, which is disappearing at a rate of 13 million hectares per year, according to the European Commission.

Existing EU efforts to curb illegal logging are based on voluntary agreements under the so-called Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan.

Forests and deforestation were excluded from the Commission's 23 January climate and energy package, however, on the grounds that it is too difficult to accurately measure emissions from the sector. 

But a scheme to include forest protection in current EU efforts to fight climate change received the support of the Parliament's Environment (ENVI) Committee. On 7 October, the committee gave its backing to a report by Irish Christian Democrat MEP Avril Doyle, who wants to see up to 5% of emissions reductions under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) obtained through the preservation of forests in developing countries, provided that an international climate deal is in place (EurActiv 08/10/08).

The package, presented by EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas in Brussels on 17 October, comes amid growing calls to include forest and deforestation issues in the global fight against climate change. 

The value of standing trees

Selling timber and the land on which it is harvested remains a far more lucrative enterprise than keeping trees standing. Brussels hopes that a new global fund, known as the Global Forest Carbon Mechanism (GFCM), could provide developing countries the incentives necessary to undertake actions against deforestation.

Under the plans, the EU ETS would be a major source of funding for the GFCM, whereby 5% of auctioning revenues could provide up to €2.5 billion for the fund by 2020. Governments that sign up to a global climate change deal could also be allowed to use so-called deforestation credits towards their individual CO2 reduction commitments under a pilot scheme. Companies might then be allowed to use the system after 2020, subject to a review of the initial phase, the Commission said.

Based on announcements made on 17 October, the EU executive would then use this system as a basis to push for an international commitment to halt global forest cover loss by 2030, with a 50% reduction in tropical forest destruction by 2020.

Due diligence

Under the Commission's new proposal for a framework regulation on illegal logging, traders of forestry products will need to make "sufficient guarantees that the timber and timber products they sell have been harvested according to the relevant laws of the country of origin," according to a press statement.

Brussels hopes this sort of due diligence obligation on traders will "send a strong message to operators wanting to access the EU market". It will be up to EU member states to decide on any penalty regimes, or even prison sentences, for traders who breach the rules.  

UK Green MEP Caroline Lucas slammed the proposal on logging as "toothless and inadequate to stop the influx of illegally logged timber into the EU". But the MEP commended the Commission's "clarity of thought" in its communication on deforestation.

The pulp and paper industry did not react positively to the plans.

"The current Commission proposal focuses only on wood using industries in Europe and therefore addresses the symptoms of illegal logging without dealing with its root causes. This is discriminatory to the forest sector in Europe in an already difficult economic context," Teresa Presas, managing director of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), said in a statement

The European Federation of Parquet Importers (EFPI), meanwhile, is concerned that the proposed regulation on illegal logging will turn market players into public authorities and put the burden of proof "at the wrong end of the supply chain". 

"The objective of the proposal would therefore not be attained," the federation said in a press statement. 

NGOs also criticised the plans.

"The EU has finally recognised the need for legislation to address the trade in products from illegally sourced timber, However, the draft proposal presented today does not have the teeth needed to seriously clamp down on this trade," the WWF's Anke Schulmeister said in a statement.

The WWF also "denounces" the Commission's "lack of ambition" with respect to securing a global pledge to reduce deforestation, since Brussels is calling for a 50% reduction rather than a complete halting of deforestation by 2020. 

Greenpeace lamented that "the Commission's proposal for this law will not help European consumers know if the flat-pack wardrobe they bought last Saturday is the result of forest crime," the group's forest policy director Sebastien Risso said in a statement.

Greenpeace is also against including forestry credits in an emissions trading regime on the grounds that it would undermine the carbon market without benefiting forests.