fbpx
Skip to content

Silas Siakor Calls for Stricter Enforcement of EU Logging Regulations

March 25, 2014

In a recent article from the Guardian, 2006 Goldman Prize winner Silas Siakor called on the EU to take action against member states that have not yet implemented a law designed to curb illegal logging.

New research from the environmental group Client Earth reveals that only ten EU member states (Austria, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Portugal, Luxembourg, Slovenia and the UK) have implemented the timber regulation, while eight countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Ireland, Poland, Romania and Sweden) have drafted legislation but have yet to adopt it, and another eight (Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, Malta, Hungary, Slovakia, Spain and Italy) have done nothing.

“The EU needs to demonstrate that it is serious about addressing the problem and taking action against member states that do not fulfill their legal obligations,” Siakor said. “It will show that they are not only trying to ensure that non-state actors follow the regulations, but that they will make sure their own member states actually comply.”

Siakor was awarded the Goldman Prize in 2006 for taking great personal risks to release evidence that former Liberian President Charles Taylor used profits from illegal logging to pay for a brutal civil war. His efforts led to a United Nations Security Council ban on the export of Liberian timber.

Related Posts

Indigenous Communities: Protectors of our Forests


August 8, 2022 – By Jacqueline Kehoe

It has now become widely understood in environmental circles that Indigenous groups around the world are often the best stewards of land conservation because of their longstanding cultural, spiritual, and physical connections to their territories. August 9, is UN International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, a day that recognizes the unique role of Indigenous…

Read more

Three Indigenous Leaders Protecting the Amazon


October 4, 2021

In early September, members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress approved a motion requesting a global commitment to protect 80% of the Amazon Basin by 2025. The campaign behind the initiative, Amazonia for Life: 80% by 2025, acknowledges the critical role of the Amazon in stabilizing the global climate…

Read more
2020 Goldman Environmental Prize Winner for South & Central America Nemonte

Nemonte Nenquimo: Protecting Indigenous Territory and Life in the Amazon


December 15, 2020

The following is a statement by 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Nemonte Nenquimo. Read the Spanish translation. By Nemonte Nenquimo When I was a little girl I used to swing in the hammock at night by the fire and listen to my elders sing. Imagine all of us kids, barefoot, piled into a hammock beneath a…

Read more