Ivory Coast VPA: Work in Progress

Jul 15, 2014 | EU Forest Watch
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Representatives from the Ivory Coast -government, private sector and civil society- met with European Commission officials in Brussels from 24 - 26 June 2014, to conduct formal negotiations for Ivory Coast’s VPA.

Attendees validated the work carried out so far on the VPA Legality Definition, which sets out the national legal requirements that timber must meet in order to be exported from Ivory Coast. They also launched work on the legality verification system, and on transparency and new legal reforms. Government officials explained key implications of the country’s new Forest Code, still awaiting ratification, which promises to shift state ownership of the country’s trees to the owner of the land. The time for negotiating the legality definition was extended to allow it to include the new Forest Code and its implementing regulations. The government promised to prioritise drafting these new implementing regulations, and to include civil society in the process. Serious concerns were raised by the failure of the VPA to include timber from forests converted to agriculture, the cause of near-fatal trouble to VPAs in other countries.