FLEGT CAMEROON: Fight against poverty & legal security in the forest sector

Framework conditions Sectoral approach (90‘s - Rio) Development of a forest policy (1993) with the following goals: Increase of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Improvement of living conditions of the local populations. Implementation of a sustainable management of the forest ecosystems. This policy was established by the Forest Law of 1994

National Forest Programme 1.A national sectoral strategy 2.Fixed prioritiesNFP Cameroon has established in a participatory, consultative and interactive process: Indicator 1 of the „Paris Declaration“

The priorities of the NFP:NFP oFinances (Medium term expenditure framework on the basis of an annual planning). oInstitutional capacity building oControl and Monitoring (Control strategy 04.05).

All the important key aspects for FLEGT, such as: Legal framework and its better application, National strategy for forest control, and Elaboration of chain of custody, were already included in the national forest programme. NFP & FLEGT

Overall political commitment to sustainable management of the Congo Basin forest has been declared and reiterated several times by : 1.the Heads of State of the Congo Basin in 1999 in Yaoundé, 2.in the AFLEG Ministerial Declaration of Yaoundé (October 2003) and 3.in the final declaration of the Central African Heads of State summit on the COMIFAC Convergence Plan (Brazzaville 2005) Overall political commitment

Based on the FESP (Forest Environment Sectoral Programme) and on the political commitment, the Minister started the preparation of the FLEGT process in April 2005 by a planning workshop with all the stakeholders, including NGO’s, the private sector and donors.FLEGT

Several activities were decided upon, out of which six main milestones were maintained in order to prepare the negotiations of the VPA: 1.Official request to the European Union 2.Access to the laws 3.Definition of legality in Cameroon 4.Harmonization of the laws 5.Adaptation of the current strategy of control 6.Evaluation of the chain of custody and control systems in the field Activities to prepare the negotiations

Official request to the European Union In October 2005 at behest of the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, the Government of Cameroon made an official request to the EU Delegation so as to enter negotiations for a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA).

Access to the laws The first step to forest law enforcement is that all stakeholders get access to the legal instruments physically and in real time. ?

Access to law does not mean automatically that legal security will prevail. But without or with partial access to the laws, there is no hope for legal security. All stakeholders and especially the private sector are demanding such access to legal texts so as to become able to plan middle or long term investments. Access to the laws

The Government of Cameroon has decided to become a full member of the Global Legal Information Network ( Access to the laws Funding has been obtained (GoC) We hope all the legal texts concerning FLEGT will be available on-line by end 2006.

Definition of Legality in Cameroon on the basis of: 1.The laws, 2.International agreements 3.Cohesion of all „Stakeholders“. Definition of Legality

Forest, Environment, Land tenure, Common law Right of exploitation, Labour law, Health and safety Trade, …... Timber can be considered as legal if the legal texts related to the following themes are enforced: Definition of Legality

The challenge is to formulate a definition, and identify principles, standards and criteria including related means of control which fit both, European and Cameroonian requirements. If the chosen standards are too high local communities as well as small and medium sized timber companies will be forced to enter the informal sector resulting in increased illegality, loss of jobs, monopoly and, as a consequence, increased poverty. Definition of Legality

A series of studies has been undertaken to elaborate an analytical grid containing principles, criteria and means of control. This grid was revised by those institutions that have experience on legality certification in Cameroon (SGS, EUROCERTIFOR/BVQI and FORCOMS). Each step was checked by the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, representatives of the private sector, NGOs and development partners. Definition of Legality

I.Legal documents proving the existence of the company Documents / General obligations II.Fiscal obligations III. Logging operations / Forestry and environmental obligations IV. Transportation of logs / Obligations related to the transportation of timber V. Wood processing / Obligations of the timber industry VI. Social obligations Definition of Legality What needs to be done is to categorize the various required documents in order to simplify control and the chain of custody.

Harmonization of the laws 1.The tidying up of the national laws 2.The harmonization of the laws with countries and organisations where there are legally binding agreements, for example: COMIFAC Two fields of activities are to be undertaken in the medium term if FLEGT is to be a success in the long term: What law shall I use? They contradict one another!

Chain of custody and control systems In order to be able to negotiate the government of Cameroon has to be informed about the scale of the implementation of: 1.the control strategy and 2.the chain of custody from the tree to the harbour including the transformation process.

1.several studies done in Cameroon 2.the strategy of control, 3.the experiences of private companies at national and international level, as well as 4.the guidelines on timber legality assurance systems from ProForest. Terms of references have been elaborated to evaluate the chain of custody and control system of Cameroon based on: Chain of custody and control systems

1.institutional organization, 2.capacity building and 3.equipments. It is intended that the study comes up with a series of practical proposals including the running cost and investment costs for : Chain of custody and control systems

Problems to be solved: 1.Structure, Financing, tasks of „Independent observers“. 2.Who negotiates and who pays?. 3.What should the sanctions be?FLEGT AVP Ask the German!!

Thank you !