Illegal logging

Greater coordination and cooperation between the national competent authorities is necessary. This applies to the disclosure of data and documents related to illegal logging, the trade in timber, the checks and controls and the sanctions. When EU legislation establishes uniform rules and requires certain practices such as the establishment of due diligence systems and risk assessments, it is essential that the administrations which are responsible for implementing and monitoring the system closely cooperate, exchange experience, coordinate their practices and reach a largely standardised application of the uniform rules in daily practice. This requires regular meetings, confidence-building measures, common training and exchange of experience with other bodies that are involved in the enforcement chain of Regulation 995/2010, such as police offices, custom bodies, offices that work with the CITES, but also regular contacts with professional organisations and undertakings which are active in the timber business, and finally with civil society organisations which are active in timber-exporting countries. Reducing or even stopping illegal logging is a continuous problem which is not solved by pronouncing a ban of illegal logging. Rather, such a prohibition needs to be made operational in daily, continuous work by all persons and bodies which are active in the enforcement chain.

This also applies to the practical use of sanctions. In order to have a dissuasive effect on other economic operators, sanctions which were pronounced against an operator or trader need to be made public and be disseminated to all enforcement authorities in the EU. The written administrative or judicial sanction should, in detail, discuss the gravity of the sanction, the economic benefits obtained by the illegal action, the size of the business, the question of whether the wrongdoer had already in the past committed infringements, the reparation of the damage and his capacity to pay. In this way, sanctions pronounced could give some orientation to other administrations, to prosecutors or judges on how to handle cases which come before them or of precedents that exist.