For more information contact Francesca Iannini on f.iannini@odi.org.uk

The VERIFOR project and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) co-hosted the 'Legality of Traded Timber: The Development Challenges' International Workshop, which was held at FAO's headquarters in Rome from 24-26 November 2008. Download a copy of the VERIFOR / FAO International Workshop Programme.

The workshop aimed to strengthen the dialogue between countries on the legality of traded timber and help develop
appropriate strategies to improve forest law compliance.

It considered various initiatives now in process to ensure that the forest industry conforms to higher standards of legality and provided a forum in which forestry professionals could share ideas on international best practice.

All presentations and working groups' discussion summaries are available through the links below.

International Workshop Programe

Opening session

• Introduction by David Brown, Team Leader, VERIFOR
• Introduction by Eva Müller, Chief - Forest Policy Service, FAO

Introductory session

• Can Market-based Approaches 'Ratchet up' global forest standards?, Keynote by Professor Ben Cashore, Yale University
• Latin America experience: The processes in the Amazon by Hans Thiel, Ecuador
• Asia update: Forest law enforcement, governance and trade in Asia by Thang Hooi Chiew, Malaysia
• The Africa experiences by Tim Fomété, VERIFOR, Cameroon

Multi Stakeholders Processes (MSP)

• To what degree are multistakeholder dialogues an essential component of forest governance reform?, Keynote by Stewart Maginnis, IUCN
• Summaries by working groups: Working group 1, Working group 2, Working group 3

Economics of legality assurance

• Macro and sector issues relevant to timber verification in Ghana by Gene Birikorang, Hamilton Resources and Consulting pllc, Ghana
• On the economics of legality assurance: the case of Costa Rica by Guillermo Navarro, VERIFOR
• Economics of forest law enforcement by Adrian Whiteman, FAO

Legality standards and their definitions

• Understanding illegal logging to make it history by Taufiq Alimi, LEI, Indonesia
• Implementación de la propuesta de PCI para el manejo policíclico en Costa Rica by German Obando-Vargas, FUNDECOR, Costa Rica
• Dirección Nacional Forestal by Camilo González, Ministry of Environment, Ecuador

Independent Forest Monitoring (IFM)

• Introduction on IFM by David Brown, VERIFOR
• Summaries by working groups: Working group 1, Working group 2, Working group 3
• Comments on IFM: a view from the perspective of the Government of Honduras by Ramón Alvarez, Forestry Sector Roudtable, Honduras (additional material presented to Working group 1)

The role of technology

• The role of technology, keynote by Tasso Rezende de Azevedo, Director of the Forest Service, Brazil
• Utilisation des technologies modernes dans le contrôle et le suivi de la gestion forestière en Afrique Centrale by Richard Eba'a Atyi, Observatory of for the Forests of Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Timber tracking in Southeast Asia by Hugh Blackett, Forestry Consultant, Malaysia
• Factores que condicionan la introducción efectiva de tecnologías en sistemas de gobernanza forestal (SGF) by Hans Thiel, Consultant, Ecuador

Convergence of policy processes

• Convergence of policy processes: Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) by Ruth Nussbaum, Proforest
• Review and verification systems in REDD by Larry McFaul, VERTIC and Leo Peskett, ODI
• National Forest Programme Facilty: Nurturing the process by Jerker Thunberg, National Forest Programme Facility, FAO
• EC policies to tackle illegal logging and deforestation, European Commission (DG ENV and DG DEV)

Summary of outcomes and follow up - English version | French version | Spanish version

International Workshop evaluation and participants' feedback

List of workshop participants