Stiff penalties for illegal timber trade under way in EU 

25 February 2009

Traders in illegal timber products are probably facing hard times in the EU. With an overwhelming majority of votes in favour, the Environment Committe of the European Parliament has proposed to impose serious penalties on companies using or trading illegally sourced timber.

traceability and risk classification

According to a statement from the Environment Committee, operators should be required to "provide basic information about the source of the products, their country and forest of origin", and they will have to "identify the operator who has supplied the timber and to whom it has been supplied, through a traceability system".

The Committe also proposes  to establish categories of "high-risk" timber or suppliers which will require extra due diligence from the operators, noting that timber "could be classified as high risk if, for example, it were from 'countries where there is consistent and reliable information regarding significant failures of forest law governance' or a 'high level of corruption'. 

Tough penalties for violators

It is proposed that national authorities will have the power to seize timber of illegal origin, fine companies and even shut down the worst violators.

Penalties will be "at least five times the value of the timber products" under the proposal, which will be voted on in April at Parliament's plenary session and then later by EU agriculture ministers.

The proposed legislation is similar to the Lacey Act amendments adopted in the US last year, and will represent the next step in EU's efforts to curb illegal logging and timber trade. Already in October last year, the EU proposed draft legislation requiring importers of timber to show 'due diligence'. 

NGO WWF welcomed the move as "a much needed improvement of the new EU timber law proposed by the European Commission". WWF estimates that 16-19 per cent (between 26.5 and 31 million cubic meters) of wood imports in the European Union in 2006 came from illegal sources .

Sources: Statement from the European Parliament, WWF and Mongabay

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