Ministerial & Industry Roundtable The Agreement reached between UK Government and the 25+ Group of progressive companies Mike Packer, Timbmet Silverman & Adam Matthews, GLOBE International Illegal logging up-date, Chatham House, 21 July 2006

Composition of the Roundtable DEFRA Minister and officials DFID Minister and officials CEOs and MDs of progressive timber industry – progressive = voluntary commitment to and demonstrated achievement of production, trade and end use of credibly legal and sustainable tropical timber – whole supply chain: principally African production and Europe-wide trade and use Trade association participation Civil society participation

Roundtable process Context – UK presidencies of G8 and EU January 2005 – initial forum, leading to policy paper submission to Commission for Africa March 2005 – presentation at/participation in civil society meeting ahead of Derby G8 Environment and Development Ministerial December 2005 – forum to consider the detail of an Agreement between UK Government and progressive industry companies

Procurement support growth and coherence of procurement policies across the EU & G8 by promoting high standards, avoiding unnecessary complexity and recommending legality as the base-line promote introduction of consistency in definition of requirements for variant categories of timber, including clarification of evidence assuring compliance with variant categories. This should be in conjunction with existing guidance, such as the EU Timber Trade Action Plan (TTAP) and the UK Central Expertise on Timber (CPET) need for should clear contractual distinction between obligations to supply : a) legal timber and b) timber that is independently verified as originating in a sustainably managed forest. Agreed to carry out further work on the feasibility of developing a variant requirement for timber originating in forests that are actively progressing towards being sustainably managed

Stimulating Forest Sector Investment in the context of broader reforms, industry and government to undertake further work to examine instruments to reduce risks that prevents companies from investing in the forest sector

Financial support for Certification where appropriate, provision of time-bound finance to offset initial costs of introducing credible, independent forest management certification. This should be achieved through existing funding models such as the Producer Groups of WWF's Global Forest Trade Network or the private sector funds through Tropical Forest Trust concessions must achieve legal status before they are eligible for financial support to assist in progressing to certified sustainable production.

Transparency adoption of a stepwise approach to improve transparency in the forest industry sector first step to establish an Expert Group between the UK government and industry, which would commission research to guide development of a Voluntary Transparency Code