The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) Process in Central and West Africa

The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) Process in Central and West Africa PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) Process in Central and West Africa

The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) Process in Central and West Africa PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description


Timber legality verification system and the Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Indonesia

Timber legality verification system and the Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Indonesia PDF Author: Krystof Obidzinski
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 6021504682
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
In September 2013, Indonesia officially signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to guarantee the legality of all timber products exported to the EU. Under the Indonesian VPA, a timber legality assurance system known as SVLK (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu) has already been developed and has been in effect since 1 January 2013 for woodworking, wood panels, and pulp and paper. When the VPA is fully implemented, SVLK will become FLEGT legality license and will meet European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) requirements for legal timber. The objective of this paper is to analyze the challenges of implementing SVLK in the small-scale forestry sector of Indonesia. The paper also assesses whether a mandatory approach to legality verification will be more effective in terms of assuring legality than voluntary approaches, such as certification. The analysis involved desk-based analysis of government statistics, policy documents, key stakeholder interviews, and field surveys in three major timber-producing provinces of Indonesia — Central Java, East Kalimantan and Papua. The paper discusses a number of challenges facing the implementation of SVLK, among others the cost of timber legality verification, limited societal awareness of SVLK, business legality issues among small-scale enterprises, and high levels of illegality in their timber supply chains. The paper closes by presenting a detailed set of policy options to address the observed challenges.

Relevance of a FLEGT-like approach for West and Central African cocoa sustainability

Relevance of a FLEGT-like approach for West and Central African cocoa sustainability PDF Author: Sanial, E.
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 6

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Book Description
Tropical commodities such as timber, oil palm, coffee, soy or cocoa are commonly considered drivers of deforestation. Illegal agricultural land clearing is a debatable concept but it has been responsible for half of tropical deforestation since 2000 (Lawson 2014). Both the private sector and governments have started to acknowledge that some of these supply chains were not fully in compliance with national laws of the countries where products are grown (Lawson, 2015). The FLEGT approach has been designed by the European Union to deal with those two interrelated issues of legality and deforestation. Starting with timber, it encourages forest law enforcement, government and private sector transparency on forest activities, and participation of stakeholders for better governance. The EU also commits to stopping the import of illegal timber through a system of VPA (Voluntary Partnership Agreement) licenses and a due diligence approach. A reflection has started on the relevance of an extension of such a public-public agreement to other commodity chains such as cocoa and on the sustainability potential of legal cocoa in the context of increasing demand for sustainable and “zero-deforestation” cocoa and the private sector publicly making commitments to end deforestation (New York Declaration on Forests 2014). This question is studied in two different contexts: the “rebirth” of the cocoa sector in Cameroon and the post cocoa-boom challenges in Ivory Coast.

Green and Transnational Crime in Europe and Beyond

Green and Transnational Crime in Europe and Beyond PDF Author: Petrus C. van Duyne
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104023450X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
This book brings together research and studies in the fields of organised crime and of ‘green criminality’ against the natural environment. By bringing the research traditions of organised crime and ‘green criminology’ into closer proximity and combining contributions on traditional organised crime and ecological crime in one volume, it questions the need to draw artificial dividing lines between criminological sub-disciplines. Including chapters on the illegal trade in cobalt, in stolen motor vehicles, the illegal dog market, cross- border amber trafficking, deforestation and environmental harm in the Norwegian industrial salmon farming, the book offers an important rapprochement between studies in organised crime and green criminology, and considers the operational differences between underworld and upperworld criminal economies.

Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World

Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World PDF Author: Laura Anne German
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136545514
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Many countries around the world are engaged in decentralization processes, and most African countries face serious problems with forest governance, from benefits sharing to illegality and sustainable forest management. This book summarizes experiences to date on the extent and nature of decentralization and its outcomes - most of which suggest an underperformance of governance reforms - and explores the viability of different governance instruments in the context of weak governance and expanding commercial pressures over forests. Findings are grouped into two thematic areas: decentralization, livelihoods and sustainable forest management; and international trade, finance and forest sector governance reforms. The authors examine diverse forces shaping the forest sector, including the theory and practice of decentralization, usurpation of authority, corruption and illegality, inequitable patterns of benefits capture and expansion of international trade in timber and carbon credits, and discuss related outcomes on livelihoods, forest condition and equity. The book builds on earlier volumes exploring different dimensions of decentralization and perspectives from other world regions, and distills dimensions of forest governance that are both unique to Africa and representative of broader global patterns. The authors ground their analysis in relevant theory while drawing out implications of their findings for policy and practice.

Extending Experimentalist Governance?

Extending Experimentalist Governance? PDF Author: Jonathan Zeitlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198724500
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This book analyses the current state of transnational regulation within the European Union (EU).

Human Rights and the Environment under African Union Law

Human Rights and the Environment under African Union Law PDF Author: Michael Addaney
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030465233
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
This book brings together original and novel perspectives on major developments in human rights law and the environment in Africa. Focusing on African Union law, the book explores the core concepts and principles, theory and practice, accountability mechanisms and key issues challenging human rights law in the era of global environmental change. It, thus, extend the frontier of understanding in this fundamental area by building on existing scholarship on African human rights law and the protection of the environment, divulging concerns on redressing environmental and human rights protection issues in the context of economic growth and sustainable development. It further offers unique insight into the development, domestication and implementation challenges relating to human rights law and environmental governance in Africa. This long overdue interdisciplinary exploration of human rights law and the environment from an African perspective will be an indispensable reference point for academics, policymakers, practitioners and advocates of international human rights and environmental law in particular and international law, environmental politics and philosophy, and African studies in general. It is clear that there is much to do, study and share on this timely subject in the African context.

Mid-term evaluation of the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme, phase III

Mid-term evaluation of the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme, phase III PDF Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251315930
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
The FAO-EU FLEGT Programme supports government agencies, non-governmental organizations and private sector associations to work together in support of legal and trade reforms in timber producing countries with the aim of increasing legal trade in timber. The Programme, which started in 2008, is currently half way through its third phase of funding and covers 24 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. An evaluation of the third phase shows that despite significant shifts in timber markets and flows, the Programme remains highly relevant to national and regional forest governance objectives, national trade priorities and market demands. It is also well aligned to donor goals and objectives, particularly the EU-FLEGT Action Plan, as well as FAO Strategic Objectives. The Programme has achieved important results at country level including improved voice of non-state actors; increased capacity and skills; policy, legal and regulatory reforms; transparency and disclosure and improvements in timber legality.

The context of REDD+ in Vietnam

The context of REDD+ in Vietnam PDF Author: Pham, T.T.
Publisher: CIFOR
ISBN: 6023871216
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
Vietnam is acknowledged to be REDD+ pioneer country, having adopted REDD+ in 2009. This paper is an updated version of Vietnam’s REDD+ Country Profile which was first published by CIFOR in 2012. Our findings show that forest cover has increased since 2012, but enhancing, or even maintaining, forest quality remains a challenge. Drivers of deforestation and degradation in Vietnam, including legal and illegal logging, conversion of forest for national development goals and commercial agriculture, weak law enforcement and weak governance, have persisted since 2012 up to 2017. However, with strong political commitment, the government has made significant progress in addressing major drivers, such as the expansion of hydropower plants and rubber plantations.Since 2012, Vietnam has also signed important international treaties and agreements on trade, such as Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) through the European Union’s (EU) Forest Law Enforcement. These new policies have enhanced the role of the forestry sector within the overall national economy and provided a strong legal framework and incentives for forestuser groups and government agencies to take part in forest protection and development. Nevertheless, new market rules and international trade patterns also pose significant challenges for Vietnam, where the domestic forestry sector is characterized by state-owned companies and a large number of domestic firms that struggle to comply with these new rules.The climate change policies, national REDD+ strategy and REDD+ institutional setting has been refined and revised over time. However, uncertain and complex international requirements on REDD+ and limited funding have weakened the government’s interest in and political commitment to REDD+. REDD+ policies in Vietnam have shown significant progress in terms of its monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems, forest reference emission levels (FREL), and performance-based and benefit-sharing mechanisms by taking into account lessons learnt from its national Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) Scheme. Evidence also shows increasing efforts of government and international communities to ground forestry policies in a participatory decision-making processes and the progress on developing safeguarding policies in Vietnam between 2012 and 2017 affirms the government’s interest in pursuing an equitable REDD+ implementation. Policy documents have fully recognized the need to give civil society organizations (CSOs) and ethnic groups political space and include them in decision making. Yet, participation remains token. Government provision for tenure security and carbon rights for local households are still being developed, with little progress since 2012.The effectiveness of REDD+ policies in addressing drivers of deforestation and degradation has not be proven, even though the revised NRAP has recently been approved. However, the fact that drivers of deforestation and degradation are outside of the forestry sector and have a strong link to national economic development goals points to an uneasy pathway for REDD+. The business case for REDD+ in Vietnam has not been proven, due to an uncertain carbon market, increasing requirements from donors and developed countries, and high transaction and implementation costs. Current efforts toward 3Es outcomes of REDD+ could be enhanced by stronger political commitment to addressing the drivers of deforestation from all sectors, broader changes in policy framework that create both incentives and disincentives for avoiding deforestation and degradation, cross-sectoral collaboration, and committed funding from both the government and developed countries.

Africapitalism

Africapitalism PDF Author: Uwafiokun Idemudia
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317194918
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Using theory, empirical research, and case studies, this book explores the changing nature of business in Africa and how businesses can actively contribute to the development of Africa. It uses (and critically analyses) the concept of Africapitalism – a management philosophy and movement which seeks to blend the best of African values and Western management theories as a basis for sustainable development in Africa – to understand the subtle factors that underpin business decisions in Africa. The collection of chapters in this book are organized around actors, issues, and reflections. They collectively present an account of Africapitalism, albeit from different perspectives and on different issues, and open up a new space for rethinking business and society relations in Africa from an Africapitalism perspective. Crucial is the critical engagement with both the discourse and practice of Africapitalism and its implications for sustainable development. It is anticipated that the challenges and opportunities highlighted by the book would be embraced by researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the broad area of business and society in Africa. This multidisciplinary book will be valuable reading for advanced students, researchers and policymakers looking at business in society; corporate social responsibility; sustainable business; international business and African development.