Press Releases

On February 13, 2015 results of an international research “Feasibility Study for Introduction of Electronic Timber Tracking Technologies in Belarus” were presented at the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Belarus. The research was carried out by the Russian consulting company “Forest Certification” together with experts from the Grodno State Forestry Complex and the Belarus State Technological University supported by the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) East Countries Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) II Program funded by European Union.

94 % of Russian companies which supply timber to EU are aware of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), but 46% do not know any details about its requirements.

The third Republican Young Foresters’ Contest, under the motto “Let’s protect the forests!” brought together forest specialists and young foresters in Baku on June 5 2014. This time the event was timed to coincide with World Environment Day. Participants, including schoolchildren from the fifth to ninth grades, took part in 3 competitions featuring topics of school-based young forestry, forest flora and forest fauna.

Kyiv (Ukraine), June 17, 2014. The EU funded FLEG II (ENPI East) Programme held a round table discussion on the issue of combating corruption in the forest sector in Ukraine at the World Bank office in Kyiv on June 12th.

Common themes of improved Country Workplans (CWPs), learning from past experiences and increasing communication have emerged from meetings of the National Program Advisory Committees (NPAC) of the participant countries of the FLEG II Program (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument East Countries Forest Law Enforcement and Governance II Program). The ongoing implementation of the Project’s activities in each member country have been discussed with agreements for activities to be launched in the second year (June 2014-July 2015) of the Program’s implementation.

The final stage of the 11th All-Russian Junior Forestry Competition “Podrost” was held near Moscow in Pushkin, from 12 to 16 May 2014. Of those implementing the regional FLEG II Program activities, representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Moldova attended the competition this year.

The answer to this question was pursued by the attendees of the roundtable discussion held April 29, 2014 at the World Bank Country Office in Kyiv.

Recently, the EU-funded FLEG II Program, in collaboration with the Republican Center of Ecological Education and Practice of Azerbaijan, organized a series of meeting with young foresters in the Ismailli and Shamakha districts of Azerbaijan.

Kyiv, April 17, 2014 - Staff from the central administrative office of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine and forest practitioners, experts, NGO representatives and journalists gathered for a round table discussion in the World Bank Kyiv office. The subject of the discussion was legal regulation of logging in Ukraine.

It’s been a year now since Regulation (EU) No. 995/2010 was put into force (3 March 2013), a document designed to ban all access of illegally harvested timber to the European markets. Yet, there are issues of the Russian timber origin verification that remain unsettled.