Press Release: Fight against illegal logging: the European Union and Liberia team up to ensure legal origin of imported wood products to the EU

By early 2014, all shipments of wood products to the European Union from Liberia will be required to carry a license certifying their legal origin. A Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to that end was signed on 9 May 2011 by the EU and Liberia, which contains over half of the remaining rainforest in West Africa.

This agreement, made in Monrovia, underpins Liberia’s ongoing forestry reforms, driven by the Government's commitment to good governance and to ensuring that natural resources contribute to sustainable development. The agreement also gives European consumers the assurance that wood products imported from Liberia, including furniture and wood chips used for bio-fuel, are of legal origin. The Agreement comes in result of the strong mutual commitment to eradicate illegal logging and to bring more transparency to the timber trade.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Forest and illegal logging http://www.europeansources.info/record/website-fighting-illegal-logging/

European Commission: Memo/11/278: Update: Frequently asked questions on illegal logging http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/278&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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