During 2017, the IMM expanded its market research programme to cover seven key EU countries, which account for roughly 90% of EU tropical timber imports from EU FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) partner countries. Its market research has been based on online surveys and structured interviews with trade representatives, government agencies and NGOs. Besides key EU countries, it currently also covers the VPA partner countries Ghana and Indonesia. This market research programme runs alongside IMM’s analysis of trade flow statistics and other timber trade related data, most recently presented in the IMM report “FLEGT VPA Partners in EU Timber Trade 2014 to 2016“.
The first edition of the IMM Newsletter includes insights from the IMM EU market scoping surveys as well as the Ghana and Indonesia surveys. It also covers an analysis of EU-Indonesia timber trade since the start of FLEGT licensing and background information on how the Indonesian system works, as well as analysis of FLEGT-licensing teething troubles and EU economic trends. Interviews with Mike Worrell of the UK Timber Trade Federation and Dr Rufi’ie of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry provide further insights into Indonesian FLEGT licensing, while VPA Joint Implementation Coordinator Edwin Shanks explains next steps towards VPA implementation in Vietnam.
Download the Autumn 2017 Newsletter