The FLEG component of FLERMONECA July 09 2014, Tbilisi

1. The FLEG component of FLERMONECAJuly 09 2014, Tbilisi Kassel 18.06.2014 Project financed by the European Union

2. FLERMONECA: Forest Law Enforcement and Governance and Ecosystem Restoration in Central Asia The global objective of the Action is to promote the stability and security of the countries of Central Asia, to assist them in their pursuit of sustainable economic development and poverty reduction and to facilitate closer regional cooperation both within Central Asia and between Central Asia and the EU. The specific objective is to enhance regional cooperation and partnership with Europe in the fields of forest and biodiversity governance, including environmental monitoring, through supporting the sustainable use and management of natural resources in Central Asia, by tackling issues such as climate change, forest governance (the FLEG process), ecological restoration and environmental data collection, exchange, monitoring and assessment. The FLEGobjective: Promotion of legal and sustainable forest management and utilisation practices strengthens the rule of law, tackles the growing problem of illegal forest activities and enhances local livelihoods.

3. The activities proposed under the FLEG component of FLERMONECA will derive from: • The activities and types of action proposed in the FLERMONECA guidelines; • The statements made in the St. Petersburg declaration, • The principles of national forest programs • The consortium‘s experience in supporting law enforcement and governance in other countries and regions, • The experience, results and conclusions from FLEG activities in other regions.

4. The main activities of the FLEG component of FLERMONECA will concentrate on: • Capacity development of national forest authorities and • improvement of forestry governance, • design of improvements for forestry laws and regulations, • implementing national forestry action plans.

5. “Indicative list of actions” according to the St. Petersburg Declaration: • Mobilize high-level political commitmentand establish Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) … • Review and as needed update forest legislation and regulations… • Strengthen, as needed, inter-agency cooperation as well as human and institutional capacity… • Assess, identify and develop strategies to address the underlying causes of illegal logging, associated trade and corruption, the unauthorized extraction of wood for local consumption as well as the unauthorized exploitation of protected forest areas, threatening biodiversity; • Formulate … concrete actions under clearly defined targets, including monitoringof progress in implementation … • Recognize the rights of forest dependent communities by taking into consideration customary laws and practices … and encourage and promote the participation of indigenous people and the local population • Engage stakeholders, including indigenous people, local communities, private forest owners, NGOs and the industry, in formulation of forest laws and policies and in their implementationthrough an open and participatory process, thereby promoting transparency, reducing corruption, facilitating equity and minimizing undue influence of privileged groups; • Develop and implement anti-corruption tools dealing with corruption in and impacting on the forest sector in line with general anti-corruption efforts, including codes of conduct and best practices … • Collect and disseminate transparent information on forest resources, their allocation and exploitation, in a form readily accessible to the public; • Monitor and disclose data on domestic and international trade flows of timber and timber products and promote … the establishment of third party audited traceability systems; • Inform and engage all stakeholdersto enhance public awarenesson the scope, scale and significance of illegal logging, associated trade and corruption, and their negative impacts on the benefits forests provide to society.

6.  The current project focus (tasks and challenges)

7. Regional goals • Creation of an (unofficial) Central-Asian forum for improved exchange of regional challenges on the legal framework (towards a regional FLEG approach) • Goal: regional FLEG declaration • Harmonised monitoring structure • Goal: comparable peer-pressure monitoring structure • Afforestation training (nursery mgt, seed centre, project planning and financing) • Goal: improved structures • Decentralisation of forest management (individual / communal leaseholder) • Goal: improved coverage of SFM and supportive extension structures • Forest – grazing conflicts • Goal: improved legal framework • Training of (junior) staff • Goal: improved admin capacities (focus on best-practise procedures)

8. Thank you Dr Joachim Krug Senior Forestry Expert FLERMONECA FLEG Component Coordinator Hessen-Forst International Consulting Services joachim.krug@forst.hessen.de

9. Attachments :

10.  FLEG AP development

11. B) Legal Framework improvement, key-procedure identification • Intensive work-out with HF specialist and FLEG CT (at least a week per country) • Review of legal framework • Analysis of missing links / contradicting regulations • Recommendation for improvements • Proposal for key-procedures under FLEG • Follow-up  Our “tools” • A) FLEG AP development • Training session for FLEG CT (each country 3-4 days WS for the draft) • What exactly is a FLEG AP, what does it comprise? • How to develop a draft? • Recommended input as example • Example FLEG AP • Country-specific input • Development of a FLEG AP draft • What are the next steps, how to “activate” it • Follow-up • C) Regional arrangements • Support for regional arrangements (regional meetings for 2-4 days) • Facilitation of first regional exchange for FLEG CTs • Facilitation of FLEG-topic exchange • Support for further regional networking • E) Transparency / private sector / civil society (HF) • Again, two-fold: • Specified missions for supporting key-procedures (specified by country and FLEG AP-challenges) • “on-the-job” like “FLEG AP development” for FLEG CT • What exactly is “transparency” in forest admin • Who to be involved and why • How to “provide transparency” • Follow-up F) exchange visit “Expert negotiations” study tour of members from all countries • D) Capacity building • Two-fold: • Specified missions for supporting key-procedures (also specified by country and especially FLEG AP-challenges) • “on-the-job” like “FLEG AP development” for FLEG CT • Follow-up