East Asia and the 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 – with illegal logging a major force driving this deforestation. In September 2001, the East Asia Ministerial Conference on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) took place in Bali, Indonesia. The Conference adopted the Bali Declaration, whereby participating countries committed themselves to, inter alia, intensify national efforts and strengthen bilateral, regional and multilateral collaboration to address forest crime and violations of forest law.

 

A regional FLEG task force was created to advance the declaration’s objectives, and has held meetings in May 2002 and January 2003. 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. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the UK and Indonesia to improve FLEG and combat illegal logging and international trade in illegally logged timber, and an MOU between Japan and Indonesia, with similar objectives, are noteworthy in this context.