FLEG II (ENPI East) «Forest Law Enforcement and Governance in the forest sector through European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument-2» is one of the main relevant intergovernmental processes. It is designed to promote sustainable forest management and improve forest law enforcement and forest governance in seven countries: Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. FLEG II is a continuation of the first phase of the program «Improving forest law enforcement and governance in the European Neighborhood Policy East Countries and Russia», ENPI FLEG I (2008–2012). It is being implemented by the World Bank, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with the financial support of the European Union. It is designed for 4 years (for the period from 2013 to 2016).

Program implementation priorities in the Russian Federation:

Improving the efficiency of planning and monitoring of FLEG actions at the national, regional (local), and interagency levels.
This trend encompasses analytical studies and development of recommendations for management improvement in the field of reforestation, forest fires, forest protection and forest management.

Work continues on assessing the quality of forest management, implementation of forestry policy and improving the system of counteracting illegal forest use. One of the areas was the establishment of a methodology for assessing the volume of illegal logging and independent assessment of their scope in several constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The first session of the group of experts to develop the methods for determining the volume of illegal logging was held in Moscow on December 10, 2013.

Another task was the review and analysis of best practices of legal and sustainable forest management in forest-dependent communities.
Staff training to address FLEG issues.
With the aim of strengthening human resource capacity in the Russian forest industry, modular training programs on forest law enforcement and governance in the forest sector are being developed and implemented for forest higher, secondary professional and additional education.
Implementing the FLEG principles by the top Russian forest companies and their international trading partners.
In this area, improvement of legal literacy and awareness of the Russian forest industry about the new Russian and European legislation on confirmation of the legal origin of timber, launched by the ENPI FLEG I gets its further development. The experts are analyzing the implementation of entry into force of EUTR 995/2010 «On the obligations of traders who place timber and wood products in the market» to provide information support for Russian timber industry companies for adaptation to its requirements. The results of the first year of operation of the European regulation were discussed at the round table «Current issues of forest management in the conditions of application of normative legal acts of the European Union», which took place on 2 April 2 2014 in Arkhangelsk.

In some regions, there are activities for the development of a regional tool for decision-making on forest management based on the information on high conservation value forests and biodiversity.

In support of small and medium businesses, barriers and perspectives are analyzed for some regions, as well as sales market for food and non-timber forest products.
Ensuring the rights of citizens and small businesses to legal use of forest resources.
Some regions are testing and replicating previously developed and successful models of sustainable and legal forest management in forest-dependent communities.
Increasing transparency of the forest industry and stakeholder awareness.

The program also provides support on updating and changing website content of public forest management authorities in the Russian Federation constituent entities, is aimed at educating students, and increasing the level of public participation in the monitoring of the legality of timber harvesting, etc.

Contacts:.
Nikolay Shmatkov, The Head of WWF-Russia Forest Program:
E-mail: nshmatkov@wwf.ru, tel.: +7 (495) 727-09-39, fax: +7 (495) 727-09-38