Working Party on Forestry

Role

The Working Party on Forestry handles work on forest-related issues, including both international forest processes and internal dossiers within the EU.

The working party is involved in discussions on international forest fora, such as:

• United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF)
• Forest Europe
• UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Committee on Forestry (COFO)

Its work focuses on:

• preparing the EU and member state positions for the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and UN Committee on Forestry (COFO) sessions
• the EU timber regulation and the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) regulation, with attention given to the import licensing system
• signature and conclusion of voluntary partnership agreements with non-EU countries to tackle the trade in illegally harvested timber

Composition and meetings

The working party is composed of national experts from EU member states.