Ecologic Institute

Illegal fishing and logging, and the international trade in illegally sourced fish and wood products cause enormous environmental and economic damage. Consumer countries contribute to the problem by importing fish and timber without ensuring legality – a problem the EU tries to address with two new regulations. In this briefing paper, Duncan Brack, Heike Baumüller and Katharina Umpfenbach compare the recently adopted EU regulations on illegal fish and timber products. The authors contrast the very different approaches and highlight areas that might need further strengthening. Read more ...

Deforestation is responsible for roughly one fifth of global carbon emissions, most of it in the tropical forests of the developing world. At the Copenhagen climate talks, negotiators discussed a potential new mechanism to compensate nations for keeping their forests intact. The article by Duncan Brack and Katharina Umpfenbach looks at these REDD proposals (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), arguing that carbon finance alone might not be enough to stop deforestation – unless part of it is spent upfront on improving forest governance. Read more ...

Legal and Institutional Dimensions of the Copenhagen Regime – this is the title of the most recent issue of the Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR). Camilla Bausch, Ralph Czarnecki and Michael Mehling edited this issue, which opens the stage for a timely discussion on the most recent international climate negotiations. It features a preface by Congressman Edward J. Markey, who co-authored the successful climate and energy bill for the U.S. House of Representatives. Read more ...

On 14 October 2008 Greenpeace published a study on illegal timber imports to Germany which was compiled by Ecologic. The study analyses how illegal timber imports impact the economic viability of the timber and forestry industries in Germany. The study shows that the substantial long-term economic damage can result from reputation problems, price dumping and the unsustainable use of the industry’s resource base.On the 17th of October 2008 the European Commission unveiled a legislative proposal for combating imports and trade from illegal wood sources. Greenpeace criticizes the proposal for not going far enough. They demand concrete penalty measures for the possession and trade of wood from illegal sources. Read more ...

The use of public procurement policy to achieve sustainable development objectives has increased steadily over the past decade. Amongst the various "green procurement" initiatives, forestry is a sector which received much attention. However, unlike areas such as product safety or energy efficiency, the use of public procurement to enhance sustainable forest management (SFM) is extremely complex – largely because the elements of SFM are broad ranging, variable, and to some extent controversial. Read more ...

This report aimed to provide an overview of developments in the myriad of international treaties that impact on the conservation and sustainable use of forests. The report focussed particularly on developments relating to public participation of affected stakeholders. Read more ...

This research project is carried out on behalf of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and analyzes aspects relating to the conversion of timber procurement on the federal level in Germany to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Such a conversion is foreseen by the 2002 coalition agreement of the federal government. Tropical timber shall, in a first step, only be procured from FSC certified sources; and the entire timber procurement shall be converted to this standard until the end of the legislative period, accordingly. Read more ...

Several multilateral environmental agreements relate to forests (e.g. Convention on Biological Diversity, Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ramsar Convention, World Heritage Convention, etc.), but so far their interrelationship is not synergistic. Read more ...