Thailand
All about the Thailand-EU Voluntary Partnership Agreement

Of Thailand’s 51 million hectares of land, 16.4 million hectares (31.5%) are forested. Natural forests account for 41% of Thailand forest cover, regenerated forests 35%, and planted forests 24%, the highest plantation figure in Southeast Asia. More than half of the plantations are rubber plantations managed by smallholders. Logging in natural forests has been banned since 1989.
Thailand is a regional manufacturing hub for wood products. While importing large amounts of its high quality timbers, it is also the world's largest producer of rubberwood products. The country is an important supplier of wood furniture and other timber products to consumer markets in Asia such as China, Japan and South Korea. Timber trade with the EU was worth USD 267 million in 2014, while export of all wood and paper products (including furniture) totalled USD 4,384 million.
VPA negotiations formally started in 2013 but, due to political instability in the country, stalled soon after, though technical work continued. The first formal VPA negotiation session took place in June 2017. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is the lead ministry in the VPA negotiations.
For more information, visit the Thai-EU FLEGT secretariat website.
VPA status
Detailed information on efforts by Indonesia and the EU to tackle illegal logging through a Voluntary Partnership Agreement.
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Latest news
- EU and Thailand hold first talks on forest governance and legal timber trade deal 05.07.2017
- Call for tender: National Forest and Timber Sector Specialist Thailand 09.02.2017
- Southeast Asia marks progress in combating illegal timber trade 04.01.2017
- Call for tender: National FLEGT Expert to Thailand 23.12.2016
- Stakeholders explore options for improving legal compliance and enforcement related to forest conversion in Mekong countries 10.10.2014