Letter to Falkenberg.final_.pdf - Fern

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It is therefore with keen interest that we monitor VPA developments in Malaysia and the Mekong region. iii We sincerely hope to see similar multi-stakeholder consultation processes occurring there. To date, we have however not seen those. In Malaysia there are neither NGO participants in the VPA Steering Committee nor in any of the working groups, which consist of only government representatives (and timber industry representatives). Furthermore, although the Malaysian Government has held several hearings, there has been no inclusive and transparent participatory process. As a result key issues concerning transparency, monitoring and tenure rights of indigenous peoples have not yet been properly addressed. In Vietnam the process is transparent , iv but a consultative process as we have seen in the six VPAs signed to date is only just beginning to emerge; it is as yet unclear how it will develop. The VPA negotiating delegation includes government and trade representatives as well as some selected associations, but no representatives designated by civil society organisations or local communities. v A process is underway to create a platform of local civil society organisations but there has not yet been an opportunity for this platform to inform the VPA process in a way it would like to. It is hoped that these processes will also eventually meet the high standard set by the six existing VPAs. If, however, the VPAs in these countries are allowed to move ahead without a proper multistakeholder consultation process in place, they risk undermining the potential of the VPAs to improve forest governance and thereby risk undermining the whole EU FLEGT process. The EU FLEGT VPA process appears to be one of the most positive EU forest policy instruments in decades to improve forest governance and reduce illegalities. The FLEGT process has only been able to be effective because it has created space for local civil society actors, including local communities, to inform the process and jointly play an active role in the negotiation and implementation of the agreement. We therefore urge you to ensure that any VPA under development will be based on a similar multistakeholder consultation process as the six that have been signed to date. This is currently not the case in Malaysia or Vietnam. We hope you can assure us that the VPA processes in these two countries will also meet the same standard as the six VPAs signed to date. Yours sincerely, Bruno Manser Fund, Lukas Straumann - Switzerland ClientEarth, Janet Pritchard - UK Environmental Investigation Agency, Faith Doherty -UK Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Tapani Veistola - Finland Forests Monitor, Stuart Wilson - UK Forest Peoples Programme, Tom Lomax - UK Friends of the Earth, Netherlands, Anouk van Baalen –The Netherlands
Friends of the Earth, Czech Republic, Jaromir Blaha – Czech Republic Global Witness, Tom Picken - UK Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples – Leo van der Vlist – The Netherlands Pro Regenwald, Hermann Edelmann - Germany Rainforest Foundation Norway, Lars Løvold - Norway Robin Wood, Peter Gerhardt - Germany Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Karin Åström - Sweden Well-Grounded, Cath Long - UK c.c. Hugo Maria Schally c.c. Giuliana Torta c.c. John Bazill i Ghana, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Indonesia and Liberia have concluded VPA negotiations with the EU and are in different phases of implementation. ii The EU Timber Regulation is applicable from 3 March 2013. iii Indonesia concluded FLEGT VPA negotiations in 2011, and Malaysia and Vietnam are at advanced stages of negotiation. Laos and Thailand are involved in FLEGT related activities and could start VPA negotiations before the end of 2012. Information exchanges and regional activities on FLEGT have also involved Cambodia and Burma. iv VPA documents have been posted from the beginning of negotiations in Vietnamese and English on the site of the Forest Sector Support Partnership, a joint site of the Government of Viet Nam and international and domestic partners, http://www.vietnamforestry.org.vn/ v http://vietnamforestry.org.vn/mediastore/fsspco/2011/11/28/2nd_negotiation_FLEGT_VPA-_EN.pdf Site accessed on 11 April 2012
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