Dear Forests

Episode 5: International Laws on Deforestation


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Laws as we know them are used primarily to protect people and property, in this episode of the podcast we delve into how law is being used to protect forests on an international level. Professor Dr An Cliquet and Evi join the host to discuss what laws exist, whether or not they are effective, the trickle down effects into national law and EU law, as well as the role that indigenous people groups and other stakeholders have to play in the enforcement and implementation of laws.


A few interesting terms for you:

Logging — The process of cutting down trees and processing them for use in secondary products such as furniture or paper.

Litigation — The process of taking legal action.

Lobbying — When an individual or a group tries to persuade someone in a government to support a particular policy or campaign.

We also discussed the United Nations, UNESCO, World Heritage Sites and Global Witness.


Professor Dr An Cliquet is a professor of international environmental and biodiversity law at Ghent University (since 2004). Her research is in the field of international, European and national biodiversity law, including both marine and terrestrial biodiversity law. Along with supervising PhD research on various themes, she currently also teaches courses on international and European environmental and biodiversity law, law and ethics on marine nature conservation, international law and sustainable development and public international law.

An Cliquet has been involved in several commissions or working groups on nature policy and law. She is the head of the faculty environmental commission, member of the UGent sustainability commission and member of the working group on the UGent biodiversity plan. She is a member of the European Environmental Law Forum (EELF) and member of the IUCN World Commission on environmental law. She is the coordinator of the Legal Working Group of the Society for Ecological Restoration Europe (SERE).


Evi Van Paemel is a fellow WWF Youth Team member and works as an Environmental Lawyer in Belgium.



Sponsored by the WWF Belgium in collaboration with DGD (Direction générale Coopération au développement et Aide humanitaire).

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Dear ForestsBy Phatsimo Ditlhong