International activities

Major events

• VERIFOR Experts' Consultation Meeting, Spain 27-28 April 2006

See also

• illegal-logging.info

VERIFOR works across three major regions, researching, providing advice to local actors, attending relevant conferences and participating in local, national and regional policy dialogues. The three regions are:

• Africa
• Asia
• Latin America

VERIFOR also works on an international level. Some recent activities include:

• David Brown of VERIFOR, delivered the Keynote address at the 'Governance and Institutions' session of the World Forestry Congress (Buenos Aires, October 2009), sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. His presentation on 'Building national capacity for forest governance reform: The role of institutions', focussed on the governance implications of recent initiatives in the sector, particularly in the area of ‘forest law enforcement, governance and trade’ (FLEGT). Download the presentation and paper.

• FSC/WWF Workshop on Meeting the Challenges of FSC Certification for Smallholders and Community-based Forestry Operations : VERIFOR’s Asia Focal Point was invited and actively participated in this workshop held in Lisbon, Portugal from May 7 th until May 10th, bringing the knowledge and lessons learned from the VERIFOR Project to the discussions held among the international experts gathered at this important event.

• The development of European public procurement policies on timber is bringing sustainability issues back into focus, in addition to legal compliance.  One of the three pillars of sustainability concerns social welfare and the inclusion of social issues in procurement policies raises many questions. A workshop held in Copenhagen on 7-8 April 2008, hosted by the Danish Ministry of the Environment and Chatham House, explored some of these challenges.  A VERIFOR presentation described the evolution of social issues within certification standards to-date. 

• Neil Bird of VERIFOR presented alongside Jon Macartney and Caroline Stein at the Chatham House Illegal Logging Update and Stakeholder Consultation Number 11in January 2008. Their presentation, 'Fitting the pieces of the jigsaw together: Legality and sustainability', discussed a VERIFOR/ TTAP research initiative that aims to contribute to the development of legality standards, ensuring compliance with buying requirements, 3rd party verification and sustainable forest management.
• On 6/7 September 2007 David Brown and Hans Thiel attended the FLEGT Tropical Forests Budget Line projects coordination meeting in Brussels. A presentation was made by Hans Thiel on 'The VERIFOR Project progress to date for the annual update meeting of FLEGT related projects'.
• Cecilia Luttrell represented the VERIFOR project at the FLEGT Independent Monitoring technical workshop in Brussels (21 May 2007)
• David Brown and Hans Thiel attended, on behalf of VERIFOR, the biennial Committee on Forests of the FAO (12-6 March 2007), and presented the VERIFOR Project.
• David Brown and Neil Bird attended the consultation on Chatham House (22 February 2007), and presented VERIFOR Briefing Paper No.6, entitled ‘Convergence Between Certification And Verification In The Drive To Legality Assurance: Assessing The Pros And Cons'.
• A presentation of the PNG study was made by Neil Bird at the Chatham House Illegal Logging Updates in January 2007
• Two presentations were made by the Project at the Chatham House Illegal Logging Updates (David Brown and Hans Thiel; July 2005 and July 2006).
• Presentations have also been made by VE
• VERIFOR staff at the UNECE/FAO Working Party on Forest Economics and Statistics meeting.  Geneva, Switzerland  (4 May 2006) and at the 19th Round Table on Sustainable Development, on ‘The Economics of Illegal Logging and Associated Trade', of the OECD, held in Paris, 8-9 January 2007.
• At the invitation of the DG-Development Forestry Adviser, ODI (David Brown) contributed a commentary on the draft EU Ad Hoc Group paper on ‘Independent Forest Monitoring' in June 2006.
• In May 2006, VERIFOR attended the Europe and North Asia (ENA) FLEG meeting (Workshop on Implementation of the St. Petersburg Ministerial Declaration) 16-18 May.