Events

Oct 8 2019
to
Oct 10 2019
Forest Legality Week 2019

Washington D.C.

The Forest Legality Initiative, a project of the World Resources Institute (WRI), convened partners and stakeholders in October 2019 in Washington, DC, to advance dialogue and initiatives related to the international trade in timber. The three-day event drew 189 attendees from more than 20 countries.

Topics under discussion included linkages between climate change and illegal logging, corruption and the timber trade, the island of New Guinea, consisting of Papua New Guinea and the province of Papua in Indonesia, Peru, and policy developments in the EU on the EU Timber Regulation and the EU Communication on Stepping up Action to Protect and Restore the World’s Forests. Side events held before the start and after the close of the main conference included a meeting on corruption and financial flows and illegal logging, a discussion on main takeaways for timber from the August 2019 CITES Conference of Parties, discussions on early warning systems and a coordination and exchange meeting among providers and users of due diligence support tools. The U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Forest Service provided generous support for the event. Below is a summary of the conference presentations and discussions. The presentations from the sessions can be found here. Please note that since the event was webcast and we share the presentations, the presentations are on the record, but we do not attribute any audience comments and questions to individuals. The contents detailed below do not necessarily reflect the views of WRI or conference participants.

Download the summary of the event

AGENDA
Tuesday, October 8
1:00 PM : Opening Remarks
1:30 PM : Forest Legality and Sustainable Landscapes: making the connections
  • Moderator: Andrew Steer, President and CEO, WRI
  • Why Forest Legality? The Big Picture - Frances Seymour, Distinguished Senior Fellow, WRI
  • Rannveig Formo, Senior Advisor Forest Crime, Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative
  • Kathryn Stratos, Director, Office of Global Climate Change
USAID Corruption: a key obstacle to reducing forest loss and illegal logging
Wednesday, October 9
9:00 AM : The last great forest of Southeast Asia: Part I: Indonesian Papua
10:30 AM Coffee Break
11:00 AM The last great forest of Southeast Asia: Part II: Papua New Guinea
12:30 PM Lunch
1:30 PM Peru’s Progress on Forest Legality - Accomplishments and Challenges for the Future: Civil Society Perspectives
3:00 PM Coffee Break
3:30 PM Peru’s Progress on Forest Legality - Accomplishments and Challenges for the Future: Government and Private Sector Perspectives
5:15 PM The Open Timber Portal: launching a platform for transparency in timber trade
  • Matthew Cassetta, U.S. Department of State (Moderator)
  • Patrick Duggan, U.S. Department of Justice
  • Jon Knut Berg, Embassy of Norway
  • Marieke Wit, Forest Governance, Markets and Climate Programme (DFID)
  • Marie Vallée, WRI
Thursday, October 10
9:00 AM Regulating forest-risk commodities: what lessons from regulating timber trade by the EU?
10:30 AM Coffee Break
11:00 AM Next steps in the EU and other jurisdictions on forest-risk commodities
12:30 PM Closing Remarks, followed by Lunch

Chip Barber, Director, Forest Legality Initiative, World Resources Institute (WRI)