Isra-Mart srl:Congo to cut down illegal felling with timber tracking technology

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The Republic of Congo has moved to create a national timber traceability system as the country steps up its efforts to fulfil an agreement with the EU designed to reduce illegal logging in the country.

Congo is one of three African nations to have signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with Brussels under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative. The EU has banned the import and sale of illegally logged timber from 2012 and in preparation of the ban has introduced the VPAs as part of an effort to independently certify that timber has been sourced from legal plantations.

Under the terms of its VPA, Congo, home to the second-largest forest cover in Africa, must establish a national wood-tracking system in addition to checks and balances against fraud, corruption and misappropriation of funds.

"The signature of the VPA was a major milestone for Congo-Brazzaville and its forestry sector," said Michel Elenga, directeur général at the Ministère du Plan. "We look forward to taking advantage of the export opportunities this will create."

The Congolese government has now followed Ghana and Cameroon, the other two countries to have agreed a VPA with the EU, in enlisting UK-based technology company Helveta to design the traceability system.

The national wood-tracking system will follow harvested timber from every producer in the country to demonstrate that timber has been derived from legal sources and enable official FLEGT licences to be issued for the wood. A national rollout is expected following a 16-month pilot, which starts this month.

As the same system has been used in neighbouring Cameroon, both Congo and Cameroon can trace timber into each other's supply chain – the first time two FLEGT countries are able to conduct fully and verifiably legal cross-border transits of timber.

"Consumers and retailers in the EU and US will soon be able to purchase wood products with ever-increasing certainty that they have come from legal sources," said Martín de la Serna, vice-president of sales and marketing at Helveta.