Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
You are here: Home Members Greenpeace European Unit Commission scorecard shows Europe is still a market for illegal timber

Commission scorecard shows Europe is still a market for illegal timber

31 July 2014
by greenpeace -- last modified 31 July 2014

Four years after its adoption, the European law banning illegal timber (EUTR) is not yet fully implemented in nearly half of EU countries, according to a Commission assessment published yesterday.


Advertisement

The findings are gloomy: twelve out of twenty eight EU countries are in breach of their obligations under EU law. In other words, Europe remains a gateway for illegal timber, despite having agreed to put an end to this trade.

Sebastien Risso, Greenpeace EU forest policy director said: "The writing is on the wall. Governments' inaction and delays can no longer be justified. It is time for the Commission to take legal action against non-compliant EU countries and do everything possible to prevent illegal timber from entering European markets".

The Commission's scorecard grades European countries against three main obligations under the legislation: designation of competent authorities, adoption of penalties, and checks on companies' compliance.

The situation is particularly alarming in Spain, Poland, Hungary and Malta where none of the three obligations have been fulfilled to date. The situation is serious in Italy, France, Romania and Greece, where no penalties and adequate checks on companies' compliance are in place yet. Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia and Luxembourg are also in fault with either no penalties or no compliance system in place.

The picture painted by the Commission's scorecard is bad, but reality could actually be worse. This preliminary assessment only looks at whether countries have implemented the law or not. It does not assess whether the penalties in place are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. It also does not look into how national authorities are enforcing the law.

Since the entry into force of the legislation in March 2013, Greenpeace has alerted authorities about suspect timber trade entering Europe from the Amazon and Democratic Republic of Congo. So far European countries' response has been slow, uneven and ineffective. Greenpeace calls on all European countries to act promptly and ensure an effective and uniform enforcement of the law.

According to Interpol and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the trade in illegally harvested timber is highly lucrative and is estimated at least at USD 30 billion (over €22 billion) annually. Illegal logging can account for 50-90 per cent of the volume of forestry activities in key producer tropical forests, such as those in the Amazon Basin, Central Africa and Southeast Asia, and 15-30 per cent of all wood traded globally.

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties.

Greenpeace
Become a Partner

Partnership gives you:

  • Your own section on EUbusiness.com - with your press releases, position papers, events, job vacancies etc
  • Each content item linked from topic channels where your organisation has expertise
  • Listing on Partners page
  • Branded with your logo and links

For further details on becoming a Partner, contact email salesSales by email, or phone Nick Prag on +44 (0)20 8058 8232.

Membership options