Emerging policies and legality requirements

Whilst early interest in deforestation and illegality dates back to the 1970s and has developed starting from the nineties, forest illegality gained momentum on international forestry policy agenda in recent years when many specific-policies and initiatives have been developed and implemented by several governments. This chapter provides a quick overview of the main historical developments in policies willing to tackle illegality in forestry. Special attention will be paid to the European Union (EU) Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, in particular with reference to Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) mechanism, and to national/regional initiatives aimed to avoid placing of illegal timber on domestic markets (Lacey Act, EU Timber Regulation and the Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Act). Finally some conclusions are drawn in order to highlight potentialities and limitations of policies and legality requirements, including consideration on their potential impacts on markets (e.g. diverted trade) and expected effects on voluntary tools, such as forest certification schemes.