Green MEP to meet with EU Commissioner to crackdown on illegal logging and deforestation
01 April 2008
A Green MEP is leading a delegation of European Parliamentarians to meetwith the European Commissioner for the Environment today to discusslegislation to tackle illegal logging and deforestation.
Thirty-five fellow Members of the European Parliament signed up to a lettersent by Dr Caroline Lucas to several European Commissioners in February,welcoming the EU's proposed new 'forest package' and urging them to bringforward tough rules to prevent the sale of illegal and destructive timber onEU markets.
The Commission is currently preparing its proposals and Dr Lucas hopes thather meeting with Commissioner Dimas today, in the company of a cross-partycross-nationality group of other MEPs, will ensure that the terms of thepackage adequately protect forests and reward responsible forest owners andtimber companies.
Dr Lucas, Green MEP for the South East, commented: "The European Commission's progress on tackling deforestation up until now has been slow at best, soit is crucial that this new package of legislation signals a turning pointat a time when the scale of the problem is becoming ever more serious.
"We must seize the opportunity to put in place measures which will be trulyeffective and ensure the EU leads the way in halting illegal logging anddeforestation.
"Figures from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation show that forestloss has reached levels of 13 million hectares a year, and just last monththe Brazilian government announced that deforestation in the Amazon is onceagain on the rise.
"If this current level of deforestation continues, we could lose up to halfof the Amazonian rainforests by 2050 and possibly all of those in Indonesiaand Papua New Guinea by 2015 to 2020.
She continued: "The environmental, social and economic impacts of thisdestruction are huge. Deforestation causes a loss in biodiversity and isresponsible for one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Directly orindirectly, it threatens 90% of the world's 1.2 billion people living inextreme poverty.
"Over-exploitation and illegal logging by the forestry sector, combined withthe expansion of intensive agricultural practises to cultivate soybean andpalm oil for external markets, has led to a dangerously unsustainable levelof forest degradation and eradication.
"As a global consumer and trade partner, the EU must seriously consider theconsequences of its trading policies and put in place tough legislationwhich promotes responsible forest management and prevents furtherdeforestation."
