Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-01-17-Speech-1-114-000"
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"en.20110117.16.1-114-000"2
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"Madam President, the Earth’s forests are the lungs of the planet, and we must do everything we can to protect them. At a time of rapid global population growth and, with that, a generally increasing need for resources, jobs moving to distant parts of the world and an economic crisis, I think that in the EU, we need more European timber rather than importing exotic timber from countries where it is difficult to control illegal logging and where we cannot control the corruption either.
By clearing tropical forests, we are reducing the biodiversity in the areas concerned and contributing to the extinction of a long list of endangered species. We are also altering the climate. This is completely unnecessary, particularly when there are perfectly good alternatives. If we learn to plant more forest in Europe again and use more European timber, these problems will disappear. Why should our garden tables be made of wood from the rainforest and why are exotic parquet floors better than floors made of EU wood?
However, having said that, and because I cannot stop EU citizens using exotic and tropical timber, it is important that these agreements are adopted. It is important that we help to ensure that there is an improvement in the control of timber products and the timber we import. We must try to safeguard ourselves against corruption, which is extremely difficult, as reflected in the agreements. I am therefore under no illusion that we will succeed in putting an end to all illegal logging in either Cameroon or Congo – unfortunately. I would have preferred the agreements to be binding rather than voluntary. However, it is clearly better to have voluntary agreements than no agreements at all and therefore I support them.
In general, however, I hope to see more initiatives to protect the world’s forests, particularly when it comes to the EU’s agreements with countries from problematic parts of the world."@en1
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