Highlights
Lots of words, little action
April 2007: Governments have claimed to be dealing with illegal logging issues intensively over the last 4 years and yet WWF´s evaluation shows there are still barely any guarantees European tax payers money is not fuelling illegal logging.
Little progress by EU governments in 4 years
April 2007: Only 4 out of 27 scored at least 50% or above of the achievable scores, this compares with 5 out of 23 countries in 2006, an actual decline in progress. No country reached an acceptable score. WWF started rating European governments on their attitudes and actions to combat illegal logging, more than three years ago, but little progress has been made since then.
The EU risks making the current partnership negotiations less effective than they could be:
April 2007: Following the adoption of the regulation permitting Voluntary Licensing Schemes in December 2005, the EU has had more than 2 years to work on the issues of deforestation and illegal logging around the world. Although WWF has high hopes for the currently ongoing - and crucially important - negotiations with tropical producer countries we have concerns.
Avoid white-washing of timber through third countries
April 2007: Legislation to outlaw illegal logging imports into the EU would underpin and support the voluntary partnership agreements and support those who want to do the right thing. The 2007 scoring shows that most EU governments (23 out of 26) would support such legislation.
Don't ignore illegal logging within EU borders
April 2007: 25 out of 26 EU Member States now consider it important to tackle illegal logging and related trade within the EU.
