25 April 2014: With Asian countries serving as the primary destination for Congo Basin forest products, often extracted by Asian companies with limited understanding of local language and procedures, the Commission des Forets d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) organized a workshop to provide Chinese logging companies with greater information on forest certification and legality processes in Central Africa.

The workshop intended to spur joint action on better compliance with the law, traceability systems and paths to certification. It introduced legal frameworks governing logging in Central Africa including the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programme and Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs). With regard to certification, the workshop informed on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Pan-African Forestry Certification (PAFC) certification systems.

Participants considered the role of forest certification in the future of sustainable forest management (SFM) in China, as well as central challenges to the implementation of certification and legality processes. Obstacles highlighted included the lack of information on the relationship between SFM, certification and legality, limited understanding of SFM practices among small and medium enterprises, and poor infrastructure development for higher priced logging products.

The workshop, funded by the Government of Germany, was held from 18-19 March 2014 in Libreville, Gabon. [CPFP Press Release] [Atelier sur les Processus de Certification et de Legalite en Afrique Centrale avec les Entreprises Forestieres Asiatiques]