On the draft Council decision on the termination of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Liberia on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade in timber products to the European Union

PA_Leg_Consent

SHORT JUSTIFICATION

The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between the EU and the Republic of Liberia entered into force on 1 December 2013.

Liberia holds half of the so-called Upper Guinea forest, which used to cover the West African lowlands, stretching from Senegal to Benin, and of which only 10% today remains. Those forests cover approximately 68 % of Liberia's national territory, underlining Liberia's role in preserving the remaining West African rainforest.

Illegal logging and forest conversion, enabled by poor forest governance and driven by poverty and trade, in particular cocoa farming, are major contributors to deforestation. In Liberia, 0.39 % of forest cover were lost between 2010 and 2020, and from 2002 to 2024, Liberia lost 390 kha of humid primary forest, making up 15% of its total tree cover loss in the same time period. The total area of humid primary forest in Liberia decreased by 9.0% in this time period. Moreover, tree cover loss in Liberia before 2015 is most probably even underreported, due to refined data collection especially as of 2015.

Whilst the vast majority of timber exports from Liberia go at the moment to East Asia, diluting the economic incentive of the VPA, transparency and traceability in timber trade flows are nevertheless essential for the credibility of legality assurance schemes. The EU should therefore continue encouraging partner countries to strengthen import controls and ensure that timber sourced from them complies with legal requirements under national, but also under VPA frameworks.

FLEGT VPAs have the purpose to bring about systemic changes in forest governance, law enforcement, transparency and the inclusion of various stakeholders in the political decision-making process, specifically local authorities and communities and civil society organisations.

Liberia's FLEGT licensing scheme is not yet in place and the Timber Legality Assurance System remains non-operational to date. Whilst it might therefore seem at first glance understandable that the Commission made the unilateral call to end the partnership, your Rapporteur believes that the unilateral termination of the VPA with Liberia would send the wrong signal, at least at this point in time.

Former Liberian president and Nobel peace prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has pleaded not to cancel the Liberia-EU VPA, in order not to jeopardize the progress achieved so far. Furthermore, non-governmental organisations have argued that the lack of progress in recent years was partly due to reduced engagement of the previous Liberian administration, which has fundamentally changed with the new administration since 2024, that the Liberia-EU VPA overall has clearly improved forest governance and law enforcement in Liberia, and that ending the VPA, now and unilaterally, would jeopardise these gains and be a step backwards, damaging morale and reducing motivation to work on future partnership.

In its communication of 7 November 2024 on a strategic framework for international cooperation engagement, the Commission suggests that forest partnerships could build on or even replace VPAs. It should however be noted that, firstly, despite the challenges, VPAs have proven to be a key instrument in laying the groundwork for improved forest governance. Secondly, there is a lack of information regarding the impacts of existing forest partnerships on the improvement of governance. Thirdly, Liberian NGOs have put forward well-founded arguments that a forest partnership would only be acceptable as a replacement of the VPA if it maintains and builds on the VPA’s inclusive and accountable governance structures, continues to support legal coherence and enforcement for the whole forest sector, guarantees continued long-term and inclusive financing, maintains a strong monitoring and accountability framework, provides tailored capacity-building to all actors, and ensures cross-sector policy coherence and full government participation. Finally, and most importantly - a forest partnership has yet to be concluded, and it would not be prudent to unilaterally end the existing VPA before having a forest partnership in place and ready to continue the work achieved so far, on the basis of the VPA.

Your rapporteur therefore believes that ending the VPA with Liberia at this point in time would be premature.

Your Rapporteur furthermore considers that a future forest partnerships should be established with the full involvement of the European Parliament. To be effective, it must be developed through an inclusive process that actively engages small-scale farmers, civil society, local communities and indigenous people while also incorporating an effective monitoring and enforcement mechanism, and it must be aligned with the EU Deforestation Regulation.

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The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on International Trade, as the committee responsible, to recommend rejection of the draft Council decision on the termination of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Liberia on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade in timber products to the European Union.

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

Pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure, the rapporteur for opinion declares that she included in her draft opinion input on matters pertaining to the subject of the file that she received, in the preparation of the draft opinion, from the following interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from the following representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies:

1. Interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register

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2. Representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies

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