A voluntary partnership agreement between the European Union (EU) and Ivory Coast was signed this summer in Abidjan to address the problem of illegal logging. The EU reported that Ivory Coast has around 10 million hectares of forested area and that about 80 percent of the forestry products are exported to Europe.
The EU said that similar efforts to combat illegal logging in other tropical countries helped preserve 17 million hectares of forested land.  European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs said that "illegal logging continues to have a devastating impact on some of the world's most valuable forests, and the people who depend on them to live and to make a living."

Source: UPI.com