Concluding workshop of the SRD Project “Strengthening capacity of CSOs and forest dependent communities to effectively participate into the VPA process”

As part of its “Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade” or FLEGT Action Plan, the European Union (EU) is negotiation Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) with timber producing countries. The VPA are voluntary but binding trade agreements which once implemented ensure timber and wood products exports from the partner country to the EU are legal. The entire process of VPA negotiation and implementation  aims at improving sector governance and improved stakeholder participation in forest sector legal and policy framework development. VPA negotiations between the EU and Vietnam started in 2010 and are expected to be completed in 2015. Once completed Vietnamese authorities will be able to issue FLEGT licenses for product exported from Vietnam to Europe. FLEGT licenses will greatly facilitate access to the European market which will benefit the countries timber sector.

Increasing and consolidating legality verification through VPA implementation will hopefully reduce illegal logging and forest crime and increase transparency and income in the sector. Both positive and negative impacts of VPA implementation on small holders, communities and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) will have to be monitored as part of the VPA safeguards requirement.
The EU-FAO FLEGT programme supported the Center for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) and members of the VNGO-FLEGT network to refine and pilot a VPA Livelihoods Impact Assessment (LIA) Methodology developed with support from other development partners. Results highlighted the need to simplify, streamline or even eliminate some of the legal requirements which are not essential and can’t be met by small holders and SMEs. Other findings highlighted the need to secure land tenure for small holders and ethnic groups and to better measure the impact of forest reallocation and protection on small holder timber harvesting.
The project included FLEGT VPA related communication and awareness raising activities and a strong focus capacity building for the members of the VNGO-FLEGT Network and local government officers. SRD and the VNGO-FLEGT network are now using the LIA experience to establish baseline data for future monitoring of the impact of VPA implementation across the country.