TRAFFIC, a GTTN partner and leading non-governmental organization, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. During Forest Legality Week, GTTN spoke with Colomban Mac Dowall, project coordinator with TRAFFIC.
“With the common legality framework, TRAFFIC together with WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN), established a central tool to access and understand relevant information on laws, regulations and contractual obligations affecting forestry operations, timber processing and trade. Currently there are 16 countries, in which the common legality framework has been applied to assess the legality of forestry operations”, explains GTTN-testimonial Colomban Mac Dowell.
The framework can be used by private actors and governments to assess the legality of timber throughout the whole supply chain. It has, for instance, been supporting the definition of legality in the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) process in Vietnam and used as a standard setting by the Malaysian FSC steering committee.
“So, naturally, TRAFFIC has been involved with GTTN from the beginning. While helping to set up a directory of timber identification experts in phase I, the organisation is now curious to see the continuation of the network in phase II”, so Mac Dowell.
Colomban Mac Dowall works with the project management team based in Cambridge, UK and focuses on Timber and Wildlife trade flows from Africa to Asia
Check out the full interview to find out more about TRAFFIC’s outlooks on the future collaboration with GTTN.
