4 Aug. 2021 – The Third Technical Meeting between FLEGT Asia Programme, European Forest Institute, and the Thai sub-working groups was held to clarify all the remaining issues before finalizing the supply chain control on private and public land concept papers preparing for the Thailand-EU Negotiation in December.

The sub-working groups on public and private land were formed as part of the FLEGT VPA process to draft voluntary guidelines for declaring the legality of timber harvested on lands not regulated by the Forest Act – private land and land allocated by the Agricultural Land Reform Office. To facilitate farmers and processing mills in declaring and certifying timber sources, the concept of self-declaration was conceived, allowing farmers to process documents by themselves to attest to the legal harvest and control the transportation. Suppose timber owners do not want to process the self-declaration document. Currently, there are two other options in place – certification issued by the Royal Forest Department (18/1) or registration with the Forest Plantation Act.

With the collaboration from the private, public, and civil society sectors and support from the FLEGT Asia Programme, the concept papers are already finalizing. The Royal Forest Department is reviewing the Self-declaration guidelines for timber from private land, expecting to announce it as soon as possible. The sub-working group will assist the Royal Forest Department in strengthening public understanding of the self-declaration process to ensure relevant government officials and operators have the correct understanding. There will be a monitoring process to follow up on the self-declaration implementation, checking the efficiency, which may lead to a further update.