EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan.

The EU (FLEGT) Action Plan sets out a range of measures to tackle illegal logging in the world's forests within the European Union. The document places particular emphasis on governance reforms and capacity building, supported by actions aimed at developing multilateral cooperation and complementary demand-side measures designed to reduce the consumption of illegally harvested timber in the EU (and ultimately major consumer markets elsewhere in the world). The EU s wider objective is to encourage sustainable forest management. The Action Plan must thus be placed in the context of the overall efforts of Union to achieve sustainable forest management.
The EU FLEGT Action Plan sets out seven measures that together prevent the importation of illegal timber into the EU, improve the supply of legal timber and increase demand for timber from responsibly managed forests: 1) Supporting timber-producing countries; 2) Promoting trade in legal timber; 3) Promoting environmentally and socially beneficial public procurement policies; 4) Supporting private-sector initiatives; 5) Financing and investment safeguards; 6) Using existing or new legislation; 7) Addressing the problem of conflict timber.
An important element of the trade-related measures set out in the Action Plan is to engage major timber consumers and explore ways of working together towards a comprehensive multilateral framework to restrict illegally harvested timber from entering their markets. Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) between the EU and timber-producing countries also promote trade in legal timber products and help to close the EU market to illegal products. A VPA improves forest governance and, ultimately, guarantees that timber and timber products exported to the EU are legal.
Work under the Action Plan is led jointly by the Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation (EuropeAid) and the Directorate-General for the Environment. The European Commission is mandated to negotiate FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements, develop proposals for legislation to remove illegal timber from the European market and take forward other initiatives to meet the objectives set out in the FLEGT Action Plan.