FLEGT in Cameroon

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.

The process had a rocky start, faced difficulties at times, and always suffered from having fewer civil society representatives than their private sector counterparts. Despite this, local groups were able to participate in both pre-negotiation and negotiation committees and felt that the process was strong. The level of civil society involvement had been unprecedented in the country and has lead to strong written commitments to make information publicly available; continue independent monitoring of the forest sector; carry out reform of the legal framework applicable to the forest sector; and include civil society representation in the monitoring of the VPA’s implementation.

Although NGOs were involved, the direct participation of local communities and indigenous peoples was still mostly absent as the Government considered it to be civil society’s role to consult these groups.  Some local NGOs with indigenous leadership took the role of gathering information from, and feeding information back to, the communities. There are currently concrete proposals on the table to ensure local communities and civil society are directly involved in implementing the agreement.

The VPA in detail

The Cameroonian definition of legality is one of the strongest parts of the agreement, as it was developed with strong stakeholder input. For Cameroonian timber to be legal, it must abide by all legislation applicable to Cameroon’s forest sector (including forestry, environment, human rights, labour and trade) and ratified international agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Unfortunately, weaknesses arise with the introduction of a tool called the “legality grid.’ The legality grid is a matrix which defines each legislative reference and the means of verifying that it has been implemented. However, different types of forest are regulated through different legal instruments, complicating the process of defining in detail the implementation criteria (or ‘verifiers’).  As a result, the grid itself is complicated.  In addition, the process of developing the grid identified and raised many important questions that remain unanswered, such as the need to define social criteria, requirements deriving from international legal instruments that have not yet been transcribed into national legislation, clarifying incoherencies between laws, coverage of all forms/types of exploitation of forests, etc.

The VPA foresees that these shortcomings will be addressed during the implementation of the Agreement and that the legality grid will be periodically updated to reflect any new changes. Vigilance and strong civil society input will be required to ensure that the identified shortcomings are actually addressed in practice.

So, despite a strong definition of legality, legal reform is still needed to ensure that implementation of the VPA complies with all international conventions. There needs to be coherence and consistency between laws, and time should be spent clarifying the issues that would ensure forest management takes into account social issues, achieves equity among stakeholders, and recognises traditional rights of forest-dependent communities. The VPA clearly states that legal reform process and subsequent revision of the legality grids must take place before FLEGT licences are issued.

Once there is an agreement on which laws should be checked, aLegality Assurance System (LAS) needs to be set up to trace legal timber to ensure it is not mixed with illegal timber before export. The LAS will apply to all timber and timber products produced in Cameroon; all products processed locally; all timber imported and in transit; and all timber destined for the domestic or international market (see box 2). Only timber exported to the EU will receive a FLEGT licence, which will be issued by the Cameroonian Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF).

The independent monitor of forest operations which is presently part of the Cameroonian governance system, will continue as part of the LAS, providing field-level investigations and gathering evidence of illegality. Under the agreement, the monitor is specifically authorised to collect information from all stakeholders in the ordinary course of duty. Moreover, an independent auditor will supplement the work of the monitor by assessing the performance and efficiency of the FLEGT licensing system. It will base its reports on information provided by the monitor as well as information provided by third parties (i.e. NGOs, local communities, Cameroon and EU authorities etc.), and its own research. It will provide information to the parties and support monitoring of the VPA’s implementation. A summary of the audit report will be made available to the public.

Implementation of the agreement will be overseen by two joint Cameroon–EU structures: a decision-making body known as the Joint Implementation Council or ‘Council’, and a consultative body known as the Joint Monitoring Committee.

The Council will be made up of two representatives of each partner, and decisions will be taken by consensus. The Council’s task will be to decide on the correct implementation of the agreement. It will also be in charge of publishing an annual progress report.

The Joint Monitoring Committee will operate under the supervision of the Council and will monitor and evaluate the effective implementation of the VPA. It is understood that the Committee will include an as yet unknown number of representatives of civil society. Its role is to ensure a regular dialogue between the parties throughout the implementation of the agreement. It will, for example, review reports issued by the independent monitor; consider third party complaints regarding the functioning of the monitor of the system; monitor the actions taken to address the problems identified; assess the social, economic and environmental impacts of the agreement; prepare an annual report to be submitted to the Council; and attempt to resolve any conflict that may arise with regards to the implementation or interpretation of the agreement. On top of this, a national multi-stakeholder committee will be created by a ministerial decision on the day the VPA is signed. The composition and the role of this committee, as well as its relationship with the bilateral Council and Committee, are yet to be defined.

Access to informationon the objectives, implementation and monitoring of the agreement is a precondition for the success of the process. Information is the corner-stone of participation of all stakeholders including independent monitors, auditors and monitoring bodies. Moreover, transparency and accountability will provide credibility to the system and assurance to all interested parties. Ensuring that information is readily available in the public domain is therefore embodied in both the text of the agreement and its annexes. Among others it states that information needs to be available about: the definition of legality; forest management; transformation and transport; verification and controls of the system; and workings and functioning of the joint monitoring bodies. A yearly report on the operation of the FLEGT licence will also be available.

The challenges ahead: the implementation of the agreement

One of the main challenges ahead is to ensure that the agreement will live up to the FLEGT objectives (as defined by the European Council) and to the aims established in the agreement itself. It should therefore strive to improve forest governance; strengthen land tenure and access rights (especially for marginalised communities); ensure the effective participation of all stakeholders (notably of non-state actors and indigenous peoples) in policy making; increase transparency and reduce corruption. These are impressive and challenging aims and therefore to achieve success the following activities must first be completed:

• Reform of those aspects of the Cameroonian legal framework that are applicable to the forest sector. This reform must include the following goals:
  • coherence and consistency between laws
  • integration of social and environmental aspects in forest management
  • equity among rights-holders
  • integration of all ratified international laws
  • improved transparency and governance.
• The establishment of clear rules indicating the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders in the design, implementation and monitoring of the process. Roles and responsibilities should be particularly clear during the law reform process, the process to make the wood tracking system operational, the setting up the institutional framework, the process to sensitise and strengthen the capacity of actors and above all during the development of additional measures to improve governance in the forest sector.
• The process must be moved beyond the individuals who have negotiated the VPA, to become part of the institutions hosting it. This is particularly important to ensure that the successes so far achieved are not lost. The process has so far been largely influenced by individuals at the level of MINFOF, and there is a legitimate fear that with little buy-in from their institutions the implementation may not take place.
• Strong mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure the continued participation of all the stakeholders, especially local NGOs and communities, in the implementation and monitoring of the VPA. In particular, mechanisms must ensure involvement during the amendment of existing legal texts and the development of new ones that will have to be enacted before the first FLEGT licence is granted. To ensure meaningful involvement, provisions must be included to strengthen stakeholder capacity; particular emphasis should be made to ensure that local communities and indigenous peoples are involved directly during the implementation phase.
• Governance reform will only succeed if all Cameroonian stakeholders are informed of their legal rights and obligations and are able to hold their institutions accountable. For this to happen, communication channels allowing for a better understanding by the public on the legal requirements regarding forest use and the new control systems should be set up. Informing the Cameroonian public about the VPA will be instrumental in ensuring broader ownership of the legal and governance reforms that will be established.
• Corruption, which is almost always deeply intertwined with illegal logging, is another key area that will have to be addressed if governance is to be improved. The VPA negotiation process did not directly address this issue, though it was commonly understood that an improved law enforcement system is a precondition to counter forest corruption associated with illegal logging. Several measures were nonetheless developed to address the issue: improvement of the institutional framework at the level of MINFOF; increased transparency (and by doing so reduction of the discretionary power of government officials) through the establishment of regular and open reporting systems that will be available to the public; increased civil society participation in shaping, implementing and monitoring forest policy; and additional controls by a third party. For all these measures to be effective, they will have to be backed up by adequate sanctions — an issue still to be addressed in the VPA.

In order to ensure that these key activities are achieved and the VPA implementation is even more positive than the process leading to the signing of the agreement, civil society will concentrate on the following areas:

• Lobbying for comprehensive legal reform which strengthens the environmental and social weaknesses identified during the negotiations.
• Monitoring the implementation of the VPA.
• Assessing the impact of the VPA on the livelihood of local and indigenous communities.

For more information see: Cameroon LoggingOff VPA counterbrief, or contact CED at ced@cedcameroun.org