FLEGT Independent Market Monitoring moves forward

ITTO has relaunched the FLEGT Independent Market Monitoring (IMM) programme effective 1 April 2017.  The IMM monitors the timber trade and market impact of FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) in partner countries and the European Union (EU) against a range of indicators. IMM activities this year will focus on an update of the analysis of VPA partner trade flows to include 2015 and 2016 data and follow-up market monitoring in the four previously covered countries (Germany, Ghana, Spain and the UK) as well as preparation of additional scoping studies in Indonesia, Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Particular emphasis will be placed on work in Indonesia as the first country to deliver FLEGT-licensed wood products to the EU. The seven EU countries now covered by IMM together account for around 90% of the EU’s tropical wood products imports from VPA countries.

New Lead Consultant, Sarah Storck, and IMM Market and Technical Analyst, Rupert Oliver, are finalizing the IMM 2015–2016 annual reports and reactivating and expanding the international network of IMM correspondents. An IMM website and quarterly newsletters are also under development.

First outputs include the IMM Baseline Report, analysing VPA partner timber production in the period 2004–2014 as well as VPA partner trade flows to the EU and other regions during the same reporting period, and initial market scoping studies for VPA partner country Ghana and Germany, Spain and the UK in the EU. All IMM-related reports and data are available on the ITTO website.

IMM is a multi-year project supervised by ITTO and financed by the EU to support implementation of VPAs between the EU and timber supplying countries. VPAs are a key element of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, which defines the EU’s policy to promote legal logging and trade in legally licensed timber.