The process to conclude the Cameroon-EU VPA lasted 5 years from 2005–09. The informal pre-negotiation phase (2005–06), mainly involved a Cameroonian assessment of the VPA’s ability to increase timber product exports to Europe and help reinforce ongoing governance reforms. This included several multi-stakeholder consultations on issues such as how to define legality, traceability and control systems. This phase was followed by formal political and technical negotiation sessions (2007–09) that concluded with the signing of the agreement in December 2009.
