23.02.2018
The Republic of Congo and the European Union held their seventh meeting of the Joint Implementation Committee of the VPA FLEGT Congo on December 5, 2017, in accordance with the agreement.
The objective of this meeting was to review the implementation of the VPA-FLEGT since the previous CCM, organized in May 2017, and to guide the work for the year 2018.
The review of the implementation status of the VPA FLEGT focused on evaluating the monitoring of the annual work plan. Management tools have been developed and adopted by the parties. However, it has been recommended to create a SIVL deployment cell within the MEF (read ATIBT article The great FLEGT ambitions of the Congo and the SIVL)
Regarding the updating of the forest code and regulatory texts, Congo reported that the version of the draft law on the forestry code has been transmitted to the General Secretariat of the Government. The implementing texts of the draft bill, discussed by stakeholders in 2017, will be submitted for validation to all stakeholders during a validation workshop planned for the first quarter of 2018.
The legality control procedures and the manual for handling cases of non-compliance with the legality grid indicators were validated (in particular with the help of a significant mobilization of the private sector). It was recommended that a ministerial order be issued to make control procedures applicable at a national level, and to quickly integrate the SIVL non-compliance and sanctions handling manual.
A review of the activities of the VPA-FLEGT support project (AFD-DFID) revealed the significant number of support activities for forest enterprises (in particular with the support of ATIBT), the forestry administration and independent observation. It was recommended to invite representatives of the forestry sector union sections exclusively to meetings on VPA issues, and to emphasize DDEF training.
The next CCM has been scheduled for June 6 and 7, 2018.
