Illegal logging and legality verification - the FLEGT / VPA as new modes of governance

 

Announcement and Call for Abstracts: International academic conference

Date: December 6th and 7th, 2012

 

Venue: University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg Campus, Denmark

 

Deadline for abstracts: 15. May 2012

 

Background

In 2003 the EU adopted its Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). In order to promote the import to Europe of legal timber, the EU proceeded in 2005 to introduce Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with countries that export tropical timber. As of March 2013, timber placed on the European market must be documented legal, and traders will be required to exercise due diligence to ensure that the timber they deal with is from legal sources. At this backdrop, this international academic conference will discuss a number of theoretical and empirical issues related to the practice of illegal logging and trade in illegal tropical timber as well as measures to counteract such practices. Although main focus will be on the EU modalities, presentations on other related initiatives are welcome as well.

 

Topics of conference

Abstracts are expected to address one or more of the topics below:

• Definitions, types, causes and consequences of illegal logging and the implications of legality verification
• Combining market based and legal instruments – a new mode of governance?
• Legality and sustainability – are they necessarily linked?
• Domestic markets and exports – how may legality verification influence domestic forest governance
• Social, economic and environmental impact of FLEGT/VPA and other regulatory initiatives against illegal logging
• FLEGT/VPA, REDD+ and certification – prospects of synergies?
  

Key note speakers

• Benjamin Cashore (confirmed). Professor, Environmental Governance & Political Science; Director of the Governance, Environment, and Markets Initiative at Yale (GEM) and Director, Program on Forest Policy and Governance.
• Errol Meidinger (confirmed). Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo. Honorary Professor Forestry and Environmental Science, University of Freiburg
• Aimi Lee Abdullah (confirmed). Policy Analyst, EFI Asia, Kuala Lumpur

Additional key note speakers to be announced

 

Abstracts

For submission of abstracts please fill in the abstract submission form and send it as a Word or PDF file to no later than 15. May 2012. Decisions on accepted abstracts will be made and communicated to authors by late June 2011. Final papers to be submitted by 1. November 2012.

 

The conference organisers are exploring the opportunity of a Journal Special Issue on the conference topic. It is expected that a selection of papers presented at the conference will be published in the Special Issue.

 

Registration and conference fees

Registration for the conference must take place no later than 15. September 2012.

 

Conference fee will be EUR 160,- for participants registering before 15. August 2012 and EUR 180,- for participants registering later than this date. The conference fee covers conference venue and materials, conference dinner, lunch and coffee/tea.

 

For registration and payments of conference fee please fill in the registration form and send it to

 

Conference organisers

The conference is organised by the Institute of Resource Economics, the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the European Forest Institute (EFI), and the Yale program on Forest Policy and Governance. Funding is provided by the collaborating institutions as well as by Danida and FSE (the Danish Research Council for Social Science Research, research project on Multilevel Governance and sustainable forestry).

Conference contact person: Kirsten Carlsen,