For the fifth year, FLEGT annual coordination meeting was held in Brussels on 19 and 20 November 2009. DG AIDCO Roberto Ridolfi opened the meeting that was attended by a hundred participants from various projects financed by the European Union. 

In the first session of the meeting, Mathieu Bousquet, DG DEV and Jade Sanders from EFI explained the purpose of the meeting. First, it was held to coordinate the implementation of project activities supported by the European Union International. And second, to find out the progress of implementation of project activities in the respective managements of the State in order to suppress illegal logging activity.

In another session Philip Mikos from DG DEV described the priorities of EU strategy related to current developments of FLEGT VPA, particularly bilateral cooperation with countries such as Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo, C.A.R, Malaysia and Indonesia. Some have concluded the VPA such as Ghana, Congo and Cameroon. Liberia, C.A.R and Gabon are in the process of negotiation.

Related to that, Asian VPAs need to be updated with hope of signing by 2010. Some countries such as Malaysia will sign the VPA, while Indonesia might need a long time. At present, Indonesia is still studying the VPA carefully and hopes to be completed in 2010. The process may be accelerated since the Indonesian Forestry Ministry has developed TLAS (SVLK) which is used as standards for timber legality.

Indonesia also provides an example of FLEGT Action Plan of the VPA in suppressing illegal logging activities in which timbers flew out of the country without valid documents. The efforts include the implementation of Presidential Instruction Number 4/2005 and the establishment of Monitoring and Evaluation Team Presidential Directive No. 4/2005 that have been supported by EC-Indonesia FLEGT Support Project. The first decree gives foundation to the eradication of illegal logging in State forests and illegal timber trade throughout the country. The later gives directions to determine the effectiveness of the process of forest law enforcement.

The project also supported the establishment of Forestry Information Centre that works to raise awareness by providing easy access to information to community at large. It has also established a working group of conflict resolution and supported industrial revitalization, forest policy analysis and other activities related to the eradication of illegal logging.

In this meeting, Matilda Aberg from Sweden and John Bazill (EC-DG ENV), explained the renewal of due diligence. It has been discussed several times by the EU parliament and previously consulted to the member states of European Union. It was also explained that each member state has its own policy in the country. Further discussions on the due diligence were conducted and updated at the level of parliament.

Based on the success of Ghana in the realization of the FLEGT VPA, the Ghanaian envoy, led by Ghanas ambassador in Belgium explained that Ghana signed the FLEGT VPA to reduce illegal logging activities in the country. It proved successful. At present, he begins to look up the things that have not been completed.

Future strategies in the context of the implementation of action plan are expected to be open and involving as many as possible of civil society and the media through radio, television, newspapers and the Internet. Therefore, all participants were trained in a brief meeting about good communication management with the government, media, or other civil society stakeholders in order to achieve the success of the FLEGT VPA. The training was facilitated by Coimbra Sirica, Burness Communications and Oumy Ndiaya, Head of Communications, The Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.