Šumarski list, Vol. 135 No. 11-12, 2011.
Stručni rad
Development and Reprecutions of EU Legislation Related to Illegal Logging
Marko Lovrić
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Sivija Krajter
; Hrvatski šumarski institut, Zagreb
Matija Landekić
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Željko Zečić
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Nataša Lovrić
; Fakultät für Forst und Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Freiburg, Deutschland
Dinko Vusić
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Ivan Martinić
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Mario Šporčić
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Sažetak
EU has made a series of legislative acts by which the control of trade of wood and wood based products is introduced, all in order to ensure the legality of these products. The basis of this control system is placing the responsibility for the legality of these products on the companies (“operators”) that are first to place wood and wood based products on the EU market. In order to secure themselves from the risk of placing illegal products on the market the operators should develop a due diligence system by which the legality of the chain of custody of these products would be controlled. For operators that do not have sufficient capacities to develop their own due diligence system the EU is set to help them by assigning monitoring organizations to develop national due diligence systems. Basic elements of the due diligence systems are access to information, risk assessment and risk mitigation. This control system is defined by the Timber regulation (EC, 998/2010), which is valid from March the 3rd, 2013. The European Commission has made a commitment do define the specificities of the system by June 3rd, 2012.
In order to simplify the control of chain of custody, the EU endorses bilateral voluntary partnership agreements (VPA’s) with partner countries for which exists a medium or high level of risk of illegal logging. Such agreements encompass border control of origin of wood or wood based products which are exported from the partner county to the EU. The core of every VPA is the definition of the legality of wood, which encompasses the respective legislative framework and a series of chapters which serve as a basis for field audits. In order to broaden the acceptance of VPA’s the European Commission in cooperation with many international organizations promotes building connections between the VPA’s and voluntary certification systems in forestry.
It is expected that without spreading of VPA’s to China and Russia the current partner countries will have bare an increase in timber prices of 70% by 2020. Within the same time period it is also expected that the production of roundwood in developed countries will increase by 4%, and that it will decrease by 8% in the developing countries. Even a broad expectance of VPA’s cannot ensure the success of implementation of the Timber regulation, because the control of legality of wood can be circumvented by trading it with EU via a third country that does not have a VPA. After its accession to the EU the Republic of Croatia will have to develop its own due diligence system, in which special care should be attributed to wood coming from private forests and to imported wood. If Hrvatske šume Ltd. continues on to be FSC certified, the control of legality of wood coming from state owned forests will be simplified, and will mostly fall under the already existing “controlled wood” standard.
Ključne riječi
due diligence; EU FLEGTAction plan; Illegal timber trade; Timber regulation
Hrčak ID:
75470
URI
Datum izdavanja:
31.12.2011.
Posjeta: 2.114 *