Forest Law Enforcement and Governance East Asia Pacific

Although only 5% of the world’s forests are located in Southeast Asia, the region accounts for nearly 25% of the global forest loss over the past decade. Even more so than in other parts of the world, East Asia’s forests are subject to unsustainable forest management, conversion to monoculture plantation, fires, small scale agricultural encroachment, infrastructure development, mining, wildlife poaching, and illegal logging. Among these various threats, the root causes of illegal logging are deep, complex and extremely varied - a disturbingly immediate reality that is the focus of the initiative highlighted here.

Beginning with a preparatory meeting in Bali in September 2001, the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) initiative has brought together government Ministers, technical experts, and NGO and private sector leaders from throughout East Asia, Europe, and North America to tackle these alarming problems head-on. Their cooperation has brought much needed consensus on the urgent need to combat the root causes of deforestation and forest degradation. Moreover, the agreements reached in the FLEG process go beyond typical discussions on sustainable forest management. The Bali Declaration and the follow-up discussions it spawned have led to agreements on specific national and regional efforts needed to address forest threats.

Most recently, for example, the first-ever working meeting of the FLEG Task Force and Advisory Group was held in Jakarta in January 2003. The participants – who represented a broad range of governments, NGOs and private sector organizations – cooperated to produce detailed action plans for initial actions in four key areas to be undertaken to curb illegal logging. Moving forward, the participants are committed to continuing to push for specific national and regional actions to combat forest degradation.

Initiated and undertaken by Asean member states, the FLEG process is the natural outgrowth of the World Bank Group's Forest Governance Program, launched in 2000, which emphasizes working in partnership with governments, civil society, the private sector and donor organizations to overcome these challenges. In addition to the FLEG-East Asia Program, a similar effort is being undertaken by African countries.

 

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Environmentally & Socially Sustainable Development
World Bank Office Jakarta
Mario Boccucci
Jakarta Stock Exchange Building, Tower 2, 12th Floor
Tel:  +(62-21) 5299-3000 ext. 3039
Fax: +(62-21) 5299-3111
E-mail: mboccucci@worldbank.org