4th Joint Expert Meeting held in Malaysia

The fourth Joint Expert Meeting between the EU, represented by EFI, and the Government of Malaysia was held in Sabah in late January to advance the technical details of the VPA with Malaysia.

The three-day meeting followed a stakeholder consultation organised by the Sabah Forestry Department and WWF Malaysia. During the meeting, the expert team discussed the timber legality assurance systems of Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah and identified a number of possible improvements to both systems. The Sabah Forestry Department will revise its timber legality assurance system and present the new version at the next stakeholder consultation. The 5th Joint Expert Meeting, to be held again in Sabah, is tentatively scheduled for March 2013.