Greenpeace delays the docking of timber carrier Skyman in the Port of Leixoes near Porto in Portugal last month. The shipment was suspected of including illegally logged timber. Portugal is a European gateway for illegal wood from ancient forests and is the fifth largest importer of timber from the Amazon.
Greenpeace EU forest policy director Sebastien Risso said: "The message from the Parliament today is loud and clear: there is no place for illegal wood in Europe. If EU governments are serious about cutting Europe's destructive impact on forests, they must put a stop to impunity on illegal wood. The Council now has to amend its position and support the adoption of a strong law by the summer. Europeans need guarantees that they are not contributing to the illegal destruction of the world's forests."
In a second reading vote with wide support from across the political spectrum,[1] the Parliament has restated its support for:
• a formal prohibition of illegal wood on the EU market;
• a system of sanctions penalising those companies that break the law;
• a control system to minimise the risk of illegal wood ending up on the market, complemented by traceability requirements allowing buyers to pin down where wood comes from and whether it was legally harvested;
• a robust definition of legally produced wood that takes into account forest management and conservation laws.
In its first reading in April 2009 (during the previous legislature), the Parliament substantially strengthened the Commission's proposal with the aim of establishing a system to ban illegal wood and ensure stricter controls on the market. In December 2009, EU agriculture ministers however ignored almost all of the Parliament's proposals, instead backing a weak compromise full of loopholes favouring the logging and paper industry. The Parliament, the Commission and the Council will now start negotiations to agree on a final law in time for a plenary vote in the Parliament in early July.
Europe is the world's largest timber market with a significant impact on the world's forests. According to the UN, the global share of illegal logging is estimated at 20-40% of total industrial wood production.[2] If the EU fails to regulate timber markets, the forest footprint of Europeans will keep on growing, eating up the rainforests that need to be protected to save animal and plant species from extinction and to reduce the contribution of deforestation to climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions (about 20% of global emissions).
For more information on illegal logging and on the illegal logging legislation, click here.
Other contacts:
Sebastien Risso – Greenpeace EU forest policy director:
+32 (0)2 274 1 901, +32 (0)496 12 70 09 (mob.), 
Mark Breddy begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting – Greenpeace EU communications manager:
+32 (0)2 274 1903, +32 (0)496 156 229 (mobile), 
Notes:
[1] 49 members of the environment committee supported the measures. Only 6 were opposed and 2 abstained.
[2] UNECE/FAO, Forest Products Annual Market Review 2006-2007, www.unece.org/timber/docs/fpama/2007/FPAMR2007.pdf