WWF Contributes to the Development of Viet Nam Timber Legality Assurance System – a Critical Step in Promoting Legal Timber Supply Chains
VNTLAS is a part of Viet Nam’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union (EU) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), which Viet Nam was just the third country in the world to sign in October 2018. The VPA ensures that timber exported to the EU from Viet Nam does not come from illegal sources.
The development of VNTLAS was made possible through the close collaboration of a number of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, academic institutes, timber associations, timber companies, and industry experts. WWF-Viet Nam, as a member of the VPA multi-stakeholder implementation core group, provided inputs from WWF experts and partner organizations across Viet Nam, the Greater Mekong region and Europe to ensure the representation of diverse ideas and opinions. WWF also supported Viet Nam’s Forest Protection Department (FPD), the focal point of this policy development, in the process of reviewing all comments and the development of the decree in order to submit for several levels of government approval.
