Holding governments and companies accountable

Global Witness is seeking to protect world’s forests and reduce the threat of global climate change by tackling the drivers of illegal land grabs, deforestation and environmental degradation through campaigns focused on both producer and consumer countries; pressing for reform on key fronts ranging from company operations at the local level to national land and forest policies; and the regulation of international markets and finance facilitating land grabbing and environmental destruction.

Why

The rapid liquidation of the world’s tropical rainforests is one of the most critical environmental crises of our time, causing irreversible harm on a planetary scale for forest-dependent people, biodiversity and the climate. The degradation and clearance of tropical forests and associated carbon emissions is occurring at high rates in countries where governance is weak and resulting in illegal logging, human rights abuses and environmental harm.

Up to 30% of the timber being traded internationally is estimated to have been produced in violation of laws in the country of origin, and governments and companies in major consumer countries are not doing enough to keep this illegal timber out of supply chains. The international trade in tropical timber remains a key driver of deforestation. Weak rule of law and high levels of corruption in countries with tropical forests exacerbate and perpetuate the problem.

Only by exposing the corruption and vested interests behind exploitative systems of forest and land use, whilst employing a range of levers for change at the national and international levels, can we hope to protect the world’s forests and promote effective models of development that utilise cleaner alternatives, are equitable, respect human rights and stay within the planet’s ecological boundaries. Global Witness believes increased inclusion of forest-dependent communities in policy processes, and the development and implementation of the national rule of law, are central to forest preservation.

Global Witness, in conjunction with their partners, will implement this project to increase transparency and address illegality and underlying governance issues in Liberia, DRC, China and Japan by:

• Investigating and exposing illegal logging and related corruption and abuses in timber producing countries. Global Witness will uncover instances of illegal behaviour and demand those responsible are held to account and to ensure that community rights are upheld.

• Promoting sustainable forest policies in Liberia and DRC. Both the Liberian and the DRC governments have limited experience or capacity to manage their forests in a sustainable way, traditionally choosing either logging or in the Liberian case, agriculture companies, to manage forested lands. Global Witness will encourage policies for sustainable community-managed forests as an alternative to industrial scale logging in both countries, and, in Liberia, government regulation to prevent agriculture companies from driving deforestation.

• Supporting the ability of CSOs in timber-producing countries to monitor these issues. In Liberia and DRC, national CSOs are the most knowledgeable and legitimate monitors of forest governance but are subjected to capacity constraints and are not always in a position to push the issues they are working on in an international arena. Global Witness will work to build the technical monitoring capacity of partner CSOs and ensure they are able to advocate effectively before national and international policy makers.

• Demand-side measures to prevent the trade in illegal timber will increase pressure on producer governments to ensure that relevant laws are being followed, and provide a mechanism by which local and international civil society can push for accountability at the international level when producer governments are unable or unwilling to enforce laws.  Global Witness will press for laws that, in addition to prohibiting the trade in illegal timber, will oblige companies to carry out due diligence on their supply chain. Such laws, properly enforced, would increase transparency along the entire supply chain and support measures in producer countries to ensure and verify that timber is legal.

Expected results

Global Witness project specific outcomes:

1. Forest and Agriculture: Government agencies shift from a position of secrecy over concession information to transparency.
2. Law Enforcement Agencies: Companies & government officials are held to account for breaking the law.
3. Affected Communities: Forests and land rights of communities living in potential and existing agriculture concessions are respected.
4. Government: Effective policy and legal frameworks regulating industrial agriculture concessions.
5. Government: Government officially recognises community forests, genuinely managed by communities, with safeguards that ensure sustainable livelihoods, community rights and incorporate sound social and environmental practices.
6. Government / Parliament: Government does not increase number of industrial logging concessions.
7. Major Japanese & Chinese timber importers: Major Japanese & Chinese timber import companies/associations develop procurement policies requiring timber that is legal, sustainable and free of land rights violations.
8. Japanese Government: Japan introduces legal framework prohibiting the import of illegal timber.
9. Chinese Government: China develops a policy on illegal timber imports.
10. EU Member States: The European Timber Regulation (EUTR) is enforced in key member states.

In 2018, Norad was tasked with assessing an additional application from Global Witness on 15 August 2018: 

An addendum totaling NOK 10 million for the period 2018-2020 was entered into agreement on 10th December 2018 to achieve the following objectives: 

i) International institutions, governments or financial institutions publicly recognize the issue of land and environmental defenders` safety and take steps to protect their rights and the rights of the communities that they represent.

ii) Targeted companies publicly adopt operational policies that address threats against, and protect the rights of, land and environmental defenders and the communities they represent.

Partners

Global Witness is working with:

1. Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU) – Liberian-based partner
2. Réseau Ressources Naturelles (RRN) – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-based partner
3. Global Environmental Forum (GEF) – Japan-based partner (GEF is our led-partner in Japan. GEF works closely in collaboration with FoEJ, however GEF is the lead-partner it is financially and programmatically accountable to Global Witness.)
4. Friends of the Earth (FoE)-Japan