Intra-African trade opportunities

1. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 FLEGT/VPA process and the development of opportunities for a woodinter-regionalmarket Intra-African trade opportunities

2. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Presentation plan • Current intra-african legal wood trade situation • FLEGT/VPA process progress in Central and West Africa • VPA and the issue of trade between Congo Basin and Ghana • Working for the African timber market development

3. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Current intra-african legal wood flows According to European Commission/FAO/ITTO studies and ATIBT statistics: • Important transboundary wood flows in Africa • Few legal wood flows exist between Central and West Africa

4. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 FLEGT/VPA process progress in Central and West Africa Targeted country Government letter of intent Negociations VPA initiated Agreement signature Agreement ratification Licenses issued 09/05/2011 2014

5. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 VPA and the issue of trade between Congo Basin and Ghana (1) • VPA implementation : Ghana is the leader • VPA agreed in Africa for :Congo, Cameroon, CAR and Liberia • The agreement concerns domestic market as well (except CAR) • Ghana will need to secure its sources of legal wood since • natural forest ressources are highly degraded • artificial forest resources are not sufficient • VPA concerns its domestic market too • Will the Congo Basin countries be able to provide legal wood? • When ?

6. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 VPA and the issue of trade between Congo Basin and Ghana (2) • Possibility of a regionalmarketbetween Central Africa and Ghana if: • Congo Basin countries keep on progressingwith the VPA negociations and implementation • Stakeholdersworktogether to • Developmarketopportunities (and woodprocessing) • Mitigate the main constraints IFIA’s workshops

7. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Working for the African timber market development (1) • Following Racewood 2010 (22 & 23 march, Douala) • All the stake holders agreed on the need for Congo Basin to develop wood processing and its local + inter-regional markets • ATIBT/IFIA has joined ITTO and FAO for creating a public-private dialogue (administratives and private sector) to focus on African timber market & wood processing development •  organization of workshops: Yaounde (21-22 September 2010), Brazzaville (22-23 March 2011) and Kinshasa (19-20 May 2011) •  To write the « white book of the regional timber market & wood processing in the Congo Basin countries» agreed by all the stakeholders

8. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Working for the African timber market development (2) • Workshops stressed on: • tricky and cumbersome custom regulationsimposed to formaltrade; • bad infrastructures • badenergysupply • illegalityisalso a hindering factor; • fiscality For more information : www.atibt.org  As a conclusion, Flegt by itselfis not enough and shouldbereinforced by a policy (The workshop in Libreville willtake place June 14th and 15th)

9. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Working for the African timber market development (3) • A major event for African wood industries : • Racewood 2011 (29 & 30 September, Pointe Noire, Congo Brazzaville) • Fourth meeting of a project supported by European Commission and Pro€invest «  If 2005- 2010 represented the growing of responsable certification for the private sector, the 5 following years will be the advanced tropical wood processing and local & regional markets development »  Meeting suppliers, importers, prescribers, experts, donors to catch opportunities and understand future tropical forest challenges to get prepared… A unique opportunity for African tropical timber sector

10. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Working for the African timber market development (4) • Racewood 2011 is a 2 day program with among others : • 3 thematic workshops with the best experts on : • Processing (market, requirements and opportunities, the White Book,tropical wood market studies presentation) • Legality and certification (FLEGT progress, Lacey Act, Europe and Africa points of view) • Concession of the future? (REDD+, an other job for foresters?) • But also : • Technical sessions, « B to B » meetings • The White book on timber processing (1st part) • Wood houses show

11. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Working for the Africantimbermarketdevelopment (5) Suscribeatwww.race-wood.com Do not miss it ! 11

12. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 Thank you for your kind attention marine.leblanc@atibt.org

13. Marine Leblanc IFIA/ATIBT Forest Governance Forum, Accra 7th-8th june 2011 References ATIBT, 2010. La lettre de l’ATIBT, statistiques 2009. N°32 European Commission, 2008. Cross-border Trade of Timber et Wood Products in West Africa. Final report. European Commission, Brussels, Belgium ITTO, 2009. Conférence internationale sur la promotion du commerce intra-africain des bois et produits bois. Accra, Ghana ITTO, 2010. Série technique de l’OIBT. Bonne entente entre voisin, promouvoir les marchés intra-africains du bois et des produits bois. N°35 ITTO, 2011. Tropical timber market report, May 2011 13