Guyana and the European Union (EU) recently signed a legally binding trade agreement to promote the sustainable trade of legal timber from Guyana to the European bloc and counter illegal logging in Guyana.
According to a release from the Delegation of the EU to Guyana, the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius and Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat inked the agreement at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
The COP 15 is being hosted in Montreal, Canada.
The deputy minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic and special envoy of the Czech Government, on behalf of Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, Jan Dusík co-signed the agreement.
The release noted that the agreement will give EU-based timber buyers assurance that timber products from Guyana are legal. It is also expected to help improve forest governance, tackle illegal logging and promote trade in verified legal timber products.
, The release also noted that Guyana is the first country in the Amazon region to sign the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) with the EU.
The country has, for the last ten years, been engaging the EU on this VPA.
Through the VPA, Guyana will tackle trade in timber that has been illegally harvested, transported or processed. The country will improve market access for law-abiding businesses, as well as modernize its forestry sector, create jobs, promote sustainable development and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.
Under the VPA, Guyana also commits to developing a timber legality assurance system to assess that timber products -for all stages of the supply chain- have been produced in accordance with national legislation.
When this system is operational, Guyana can issue verified legal timber products with FLEGT licenses. The license certifies that the timber or timber products exported under that license are legal.
The VPA will ensure this is duly enforced, guaranteeing the sustainable management of the country’s enormous forest area and thus protecting biodiversity. It will also help to improve the competitiveness of Guyana’s timber industry by modernizing timber operations.
This, in turn, will create jobs and ensure that forestry brings employment in the formal economy, while expanding trade opportunities as Guyana moves to exporting guaranteed legal timber products.
Outside of these efforts, however, the EU release acknowledged that Guyana has a robust national legislation on forests, including a Forest Code.
Guyana has one of the oldest, most diverse and largest tropical ecosystems worldwide that houses an array of diverse flora and fauna, the forests are home to more than 9000 species.
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