30 March 2016: The EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Facility has released a factsheet and a briefing exploring how Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) between the EU and timber-exporting countries contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

VPAs are among the measures of the EU FLEGT Action Plan, which aims to tackle illegal logging by improving forest governance and promoting trade in legal timber products. The factsheet highlights that VPAs, by strengthening each partner country’s legal and regulatory frameworks, reach far beyond the timber trade, and have positive impacts on democracy and justice, jobs and welfare, peace and security, climate change and biodiversity conservation.

By modernizing and formalizing the forest sector, improving business practices and institutionalizing multistakeholder participation in decision-making, it is argued that VPAs have positive impacts on a number of SDGs, including SDG 8 (Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all); SDG 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns); SDG 13 (Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts); SDG 15 (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss); and SDG 16 (Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels). [Publication: VPAs for SDGs: How Voluntary Partnership Agreements Contribute to Global Development Goals] [4-page briefing on VPAs, governance and SDGs] [EU FLEGT Facility webpage]