The European Union (EU) and the Government of Indonesia have signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to ensure that all timber and timber products exported to the EU are from verified legal sources.
30 September 2013: The European Union (EU) and the Government of Indonesia have signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to ensure that all timber and timber products exported to the EU are from verified legal sources.
The VPA is the first signed with an Asian country under the European Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. The agreement is particularly significant as Indonesia is the largest timber exporter in the world.
The agreement, which took six years to negotiate, aims to eliminate illegal logging and the trade of illegally harvested products. Under the agreement, the EU will provide support to the Government of Indonesia to build and implement control systems to track legal timber. [EU Press Release] [CIFOR Blog]