Workshop Strengthens Forest Law Compliance and Governance in Southeast Asia

Stakeholders from across Southeast Asia gathered from 11-13 September 2007, in Manila, the Philippines, to promote dialogue and identify different perspectives on obstacles to building institutional capacity and rationalizing forest policy and the legal framework.

The International Tropical Timber Organization (UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines (DENR), organized a workshop on improving forest law compliance and governance. The event was attended by 51 representatives from concerned government agencies, civil society/NGOs, private sector, and regional/international organizations. Participants came from 10 countries in the region, as well as 14 regional and international organizations.

Illegal logging, timber smuggling and trade of illegally sourced timber are examples of unlawful activities ITTO), with the in the forest sector in many Southeast Asian countries. Weak compliance and enforcement with forest laws results in severe forest degradation and deforestation. The resulting environmental damage is considerable, including loss of habitat and biodiversity, soil degradation and disturbance of forest ecosystem services.

Participants at the meeting agreed to work towards a holistic strategy. To promote enforcement and compliance, any approach targeting illegal activities must be holistic and include a wide range of policy, legal, institutional and technical options to: (1) Rationalize the policy and legal framework; (2) Build institutional capacity for law enforcement and governance; and (3) Improve knowledge and information about the forest resources and sector.

While discussing forest policy and legal framework, participants recognized the need for a strong commitment by governments to review and amend outdated laws, then equitably enforce them. There is also a need to review conflicting laws and enhance coherence by harmonizing laws at the national and sub-national levels. In view of inadequate coordination among countries in the region, including transboundary issues, mechanisms for regional collaboration need to be enhanced.

Additionally, to strengthen the institutional capacity for better forest law compliance and governance, multi-stakeholder processes should be established to develop mechanisms to ensure transparency, avoid conflicts of interest and monitor performance within the broader good governance concept and framework.

Finally, in order to effectively implement the workshop recommendations, the generation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge and information is crucial. In this context, ensuring relevant and updated information, access, transparency, reliability and timeliness of the data are matters of urgent concern and required action. Additionally, each country's customs and trade laws, rules and regulations related to forestry must be harmonized (or at least recognized) where possible.

A report of the outcomes and recommendations can be found at this address (MS Word).

For more information about the conference, please contact Dr Steven Johnson from the ITTO Secretariat at .