ANNEX IXSupplementary provisions
ANNEX IX AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORTING MEASURES I. LEGAL AND REGULATORY TEXTS I.1. Laws relating to the definition of legal timber Bearing in mind the definition of legally produced timber given in Annex II, some legal and regulatory references will need to be completed/revised before the FLEGT licensing scheme comes into full operation. Of these texts, the following can be mentioned: (a) Ministry for Water and Forests: — Volume 3 of the forest land-use/management standards; — Revision of the law on the PEA award committee, involving civil society; — Laws regulating plantation forests (terms and conditions relating to plantations of more than 50 hectares; definition of contractual relations between an individual/community and a logging company; other relevant areas); — Law regulating licensing authority information on certain aspects of forestry and environmental management; — Non-compliance management manual; — Law regulating the use of non-compliant timber. (b) Ministry of the Environment and Ecology: — Implementing regulations for the Environment Code; — Laws on measuring environmental impact. (c) Ministry of Agriculture: — Updated Law on compensation for crops; — Rural code (use rights, land law). (d) Ministry of Transport: — Law governing the transportation of timber. (e) Ministry for Trade and Industry: — Law on registering companies with the local chambers. (f) Ministry of Finances and Budgets: — Law on imported timber and timber in transit. (g) Ministry of the Interior: — Law on decentralisation; — Law on local governments. I.2. Laws on the LAS Laws establishing the national tracking system: — Organic Law on the Ministry responsible for forests, adapted according to the provisions taken in the context of FLEGT (clarification of the roles of ICEF, CDF, BMIV and DR/IPs, for verifying and checking verification of legality, along with the STP and Joint Committee); — Order appointing the FLEGT licensing authority; — Laws governing the local timber market; — Law detailing the verification procedures anticipated in the LAS in the case of companies that have a private certification system. I.3. Laws on Agreement monitoring — Organic Law on the Ministry responsible for forests, adapted according to the provisions taken in the context of FLEGT; — Law on the Joint Committee; — Order appointing the Permanent Technical Secretariat: this will be a CAR body bringing together representatives of the public administration, the private sector and civil society; — Law on the participation of stakeholders and their role in Agreement implementation; — Law instituting consideration within the LAS of independent monitoring undertaken by civil society. II. STRENGTHENING THE HUMAN CAPACITY OF THE DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS a. ICERF, licensing authority and other structures The FLEGT Agreement is a new process that will have many requirements in terms of its implementation. It will therefore be necessary to build the capacity of the administration. The Central African Republic has decided to have the whole LAS verified by the Central Inspectorate for Water and Forests (ICEF). The whole operations database will need to be centralised within a database management system (SGBD) that will be held by the Forestry Data Centre (CDF). In addition, well before signing the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), the government decided to implement a Mobile Intervention and Verification Brigade (BMIV). However, given that the organic law on the Ministry for Water and Forests, Hunting and Fisheries (MEFCP) sets out responsibilities for both its centralised and decentralised departments, there are, in the first place, sometimes overlaps in the current control system between the MEFCP’s centralised and decentralised departments and, in the second, the different decentralised departments do not function properly. Bearing in mind the LAS described in this Agreement, it will be necessary to specify, complete and amend the roles of the different actors in the organic law on the MEFCP, and to redefine the interactions between the different decentralised departments, along with the information flows between these different departments and the SGBD, which will be centralised within the Ministry responsible for forests. To this end, ICEF (in charge of data centralisation) will need to build its capacities through specific information management training. This training will also need to be extended to other centralised and decentralised departments involved in forestry management. This relates specifically to the CDF, FLEGT licensing authority and regional directors, plus prefectural and border inspectors. These departments will need to be trained on the data inputting software and the information exchange and transmission procedures at central level. b. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society NGOs and civil society are stakeholders in the process. Civil society’s independent monitoring is the mechanism by which it can contribute effectively to implementation of the Agreement. The purpose of civil society’s independent monitoring is to improve the State’s systems for implementing forestry law, with the aim of good governance. It will need to document the information gathered and make it available to the FLEGT licensing authority and the Joint Implementation Committee. To this end, in order to ensure the proper involvement of these NGOs in implementing the Agreement, their capacity will also need to be developed. They will need to follow training on civil society independent monitoring, particularly data gathering and report writing. c. Training from private companies (for example, for optimum understanding and deployment of the LAS) d. Customs Conciliation and Expertise Commission (CCED) e. Training of NTS actors In order to ensure the proper involvement of all stakeholders in the national tracking system, there will be ongoing grassroots training. III. BUILDING MATERIAL CAPACITY The dispersed nature of the different structures involved in legality assurance control makes the work of verification difficult and, in the long term, risks causing delays in the issuing of licences. The structures that will be involved in Agreement implementation are so large that if there are no premises to house them their efficient functioning may be at risk, thus causing problems. It will therefore be essential to make additional offices available (STP, ICEF, DGEF, DIAF, DEIF, DR/IPs, CDF, BMIV, FLEGT licensing authority) in order to be able to group together all the services and thus improve coordination. Several possible options will be studied (building, renovation, renting). Moreover, ICEF, DGEF, DIAF, DEIF, CDF and the decentralised departments will need adequate logistical resources (vehicles, computers, Internet communications, office equipment, etc.) to carry out their tasks. A study will determine actual needs. The current tracking system is not able to collect all information linked to the timber supply chain. One option chosen by the Central African Republic is to develop a draft NTS in accordance with Annex V. This draft, the costs of which have yet to be established, will need to provide for sufficient logistical resources (vehicles, computers, Internet communications, office equipment, etc.) to enable the CDF to gather and centralise all information on timber. IV. COMMUNICATION Communication is an essential tool for implementation of the Agreement. Sufficient communication will be necessary to keep the grassroots communities and the actors involved in the LAS informed. This will require: — writing a communications plan for the various VPA-FLEGT actors; — developing company communications/participation procedures in relation to the local and indigenous populations; — developing and updating the website of the Ministry responsible for forests; — informing parliamentary members: parliament is a decision-making institution involved in adopting laws on forest management. Given their position in their constituency and the role they play with their electorate, MPs will need to be informed of the importance of the Agreement; — informing logging companies: the companies will be kept abreast of developments in implementing the Agreement and the procedures and methods they will be required to apply. V. STATISTICAL MONITORING OF THE DOMESTIC TIMBER MARKET The domestic timber market in the CAR will need to observe FLEGT requirements. In order to gather information on the domestic timber market and link with forest management generally, the creation of an inter-ministerial committee responsible for monitoring and updating all statistics related to the domestic timber market is envisaged. VI. MEASURES CONCERNING THE PROMOTION, INDUSTRIALISATION AND MARKETING OF TIMBER AND DERIVED PRODUCTS CAR timber and derived products covered by the Agreement may also include what are known as secondary tree species, which do not yet have potential outlets. The CAR is required by this Agreement to encourage the private sector to conduct a more thorough and diversified processing that is of interest to the European market. To this end, the CAR will take restrictive measures on the export of logs by implementing Article 44 of the CAR’s Forestry Code. On the other hand, this promotion requires the total openness of Union operators and their interest in CAR timber and derived products from all species. Among the envisaged measures, a number of actions could be considered. 1. Undertaking an inventory of the timber sector in the CAR; 2. Analysing the dynamics and requirements; 3. Preparing a plan for the assessment, industrial development and more advanced processing of timber; 4. Preparing processing rules; 5. Preparing incentives for the use of timber (quality standards, promotion of new products); 6. Typifying and promoting lesser known species; 7. Encouraging technology transfer for industrialisation. VII. CROSS-CUTTING MEASURES The implementation of activities in the context of the CAR’s FLEGT-VPA relies primarily on two cross-cutting measures: 1. In terms of organisation, it will be a question of finalising a detailed and updated plan of tasks related to Agreement implementation in order to translate the eleven (11) activities anticipated in the implementation schedule into action. 2. In terms of financing, it will be a matter of mobilising the appropriate financial resources, relying in particular on task planning. It will be possible to use special forest development taxes (CAS-DF) to finance these activities and these could come from funds arising out of the REDD process.