EU launches €5m project to protect Asean biodiversity from illegal loggers
The European Union has announced a project to help Asean countries reduce illegal logging by strengthening sustainable and legal forest management, improving governance and promoting trade in legal timber.
The €5-million (Bt183.4 million) “Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade in ASEAN” project will be run over the next three years by the European Forest Institute.
Southeast Asia is among the world’s major deforestation hotspots, and ranks among the highest in terms of severe biodiversity loss.
Between 2005 and 2015, the region lost about 80 million hectares of forest, a rate of deforestation which would result in over 40 per cent of its biodiversity disappearing by 2100.
Forests are a major source of livelihoods, food security and material production for a significant percentage of the 650 million people in Southeast Asia.
The new anti-logging project will support the EU’s existing Plan for Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) in Asean. It covers Indonesia and Vietnam, with negotiations still ongoing with Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.