20 Dec. 2021 – Before heading off to holiday, FLEGT VPA ad-hoc working group met at the last meeting of this year to review draft Annexes; Thai Timber Legality Definition, Public Disclosure of Information. The working group also caught up on the long-discussed plan, Thailand’s electronic system for timber verification.

The Thai Timber Legality Definition is one of the three Annexes that Thailand and the EU agreed at the Third Negotiation Meeting in 2020. The recent review of the draft was made to update the Annex following the new regulations made in Thailand. This Annex would go through rounds of revisions to ensure coherency with the national regulatory developments.

As a result of the successful workshop and seminar on Public Disclosure of Information headed last month by RECOFTC, the Annex was revised following inputs from all relevant Thai government.

The Thai Timber Legality Definition and Public Disclosure of Information do not end here. The Ad-Hoc Working Group will produce recommendations on needed regulatory updates for the Royal Forest Department and other government agencies to improve law enforcement and transparency of Thai forest sector.

The Royal Forest Department set digitization of timber verification system as their present main goal. RFD Single Window will be a central system of Thailand for timber registration, certification, timber stock, and many more. The system is in the development phase. Aside from internal system development, data sharing will be part of the system development to ensure that the Royal Forest Department receives all necessary data from government agencies and private organizations to check timber legality in all aspects.