The Forests Dialogue (TFD), a multi-stakeholder process between civil society and business leaders focusing on sustainable forest management, has convened a meeting in preparation for the Europe and North Asia (ENA) Forest Law Enforcement Governance (FLEG) Ministerial Conference.

The dialogue on illegal logging, which took place in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 2-3 November 2005, developed eight recommendations for the 22-25 November 2005 Ministerial Conference, which will also take place in St. Petersburg. The recommendations include: legal, equitable and sustainable forest management should be the ultimate goal of the ENA FLEG process; forest governance is a societal responsibility, however governments have the key role in creating an enabling environment; a good governance framework is fundamental to legal, equitable and sustainable forest management; corruption must be openly recognized and directly addressed as an urgent priority; partnerships between responsible forest industry and civil society have led to innovation and taken the lead in establishing best practice; consumers and producers share responsibility to support the market for legal and sustainable forest products in ways which avoid penalizing legal operations; governments must commit to develop a time bound follow-up program for implementing the declaration and indicative action plan; and bilateral and multilateral cooperation involving consuming, donor and producer countries will play a critical role in supporting the development and time-bound implementation of National Action Plans (NAP).
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Co-chairs’ summary