Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade ( FLEGT )
FLEGT stands for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade. The EU’s FLEGT Action Plan was established in 2003. It aims to reduce illegal logging by strengthening sustainable and legal forest management, improving governance and promoting trade in legally produced timber.
Voluntary Partnership Agreement ( VPA )
A Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) is a legally binding trade agreement between the European Union and timber-producing countries outside the EU such as Liberia.
The purpose of a VPA is to ensure that timber and timber products exported to the EU come from legal sources. The agreements also help timber-exporting countries stop illegal logging by improving regulation and governance of the forest sector.
REDD+
Global climate change threatens people, their communities and their livelihoods around the world. As part of an international climate agreement that will complement the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the international community has developed a climate change mitigation and economic incentive mechanism designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries – REDD+:
- Reducing emissions from deforestation
- Reducing emissions from forest degradation
- Conservation of forest carbon stocks
- Sustainable management of forests
- Enhancement of forest carbon stocks
The launch of REDD+ aims to create a global win-win situation for all stakeholders, from local communities to governments. REDD+ designates a dollar value for territories with standing forests according to the amount that would be released if the forests were destroyed. This gives developed countries a way to meet emissions standards by paying to keep forests in the developing world standing. The money is then allocated to incentivize forest community-members, who would otherwise need to cut down the forests for income.
In 2012 The Government of Liberia received $3.6 million from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) to develop Liberia’s national plan for engaging in REDD+. The Forest Development Authority (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are the key govern- ment agencies involved in the pro- gram, which will offer Liberia a new opportunity to benefit finanically from serving global conservation goals. It will provide mechanisms to manage forests in a balanced way for long-term sustainable economic growth, to support the livelihoods of local and rural communities, and to ensure that important national and global heritage is conserved.
