Mr. Bruno Cammaert of FAO paid a courtesy visit to Mrs. Kantinan Peawsa-ad, Director of the Forest Economics Bureau and Director of the Thai-EU FLEGT Secretariat Office (TEFSO), to discuss TEFSO’s 2020 plan and to ensure effective support to Thailand’s FLEGT VPA process. FAO expressed its willingness to continue support to TEFSO and the Thai Royal Forest Department (RFD) in partnership with RFD which has pledged to provide financial support as well.

          Director Kantinan provided FAO with updates on a number of issues, including the status of discussions on import control mechanisms, harmonization of IT-tools and databases under development, and plans for implementation of the Self Declaration with witness mechanism. Mr. Cammaert in turn provided updates on complementary FAO-led projects related to legal transparency and integrated forest landscape management which will have benefits for FLEGT in Thailand.