Policy Brief 3.
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In May 2009, the European Union and the Government of the Republic of Congo announced a new agreement that for the first time establishes a system to ensure wood products exported from the Republic of Congo to the EU contain no illegally harvested timber and are derived from managed forests that benefit local communities. The accord announced is a legally binding bilateral pact known as a Voluntary Partnership Agreement or VPA – an instrument that emerged from the European Commission’s 2003 Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) that is designed to halt the flow of illegal timber into EU markets.
How are VPAs negotiated and what are they trying to achieve? EFI Policy Brief 3 looks at the structure, aims and challenges of Voluntary Partnership Agreements in close detail.
Recommended citation:
EU FLEGT Facility. 2009. What Is a Voluntary Partnership Agreement? – the European Union Approach. Policy Brief 3. European Forest Institute.
Number of pages: 12
ISBN 978-952-5453-33-2