Thursday 24 January 2013

INDONESIA WOOD LEGALITY VERIFICATION SYSTEM EFFECTIVE AS PER 2013



The Ministry of Forestry confirmed Indonesian Wood Legality Verification system [SLVK] would be effective as per 2013. SLVK was the premium program to step up competitiveness of Indonesian wood in the export market, where so far it was hard for Indonesian wood to penetrate the world market because they were regarded as being obtained by damaging the forest, and therefore illegal. The Ministry of Forestry had also signed Memorandum of Understanding with Uni Europe to make sure that all products had obtained Certificate of Wood Legality [SLVK] and the legality was certified through FLEGTVPA Agreement.

The Director of Processing and Marketing Development of Forestry Products, Dwi Sudharto, in Jakarta on Monday 1/10/2012 underscored that SLVK served as assurance to the markets of Europe, America, Japan and neighboring countries that wood and wood products produced in Indonesia were legal products. According to Dwi the SLVK was also meant to eliminate negative astigmatism that Indonesia is a nation of sealers because survey had unveiled that 80% of Indonesian wood in the world market were illegal products. Dwi Sudharto explained that SLVK was applied by the process of strict back tracking to make sure that factories only accept and process legal woods. “All wood products exported could be traced back to its points of origin” Dwi concluded.

He admitted that so far many Indonesia’s export products, especially pulp, were rejected due to black campaign of foreign NGO’s and yet Indonesia’s potential to expand paper and pulp market were still great. He was optimistic that Indonesia’s pulp and paper industry would develop and at the same time enable Indonesia to be a leading global player by still upholding the principle of sustainable forest management with focus on the principle of High Conservation Value [NKT]. He was optimistic that SLVK, beside minimizing illegal logging was effective for uplifting price of Indonesian wood abroad.

Meanwhile, to overcome financial problem among small-and-medium business [UKM] in financing SLVK certification, Dwi stated that the Ministry of Forestry promised to extend financial aid to UKM for financing their SLVK certification. He explained that financing for UKM would be taken from APBN budget and overseas aid. According to Dwi Sudharto, aid for UKM was most important because it was in parallel with the basic principle of SLVK program in the first place which was aimed at strengthening competitiveness of Indonesian wood products in the global market.

Furthermore he elaborated that Indonesia was a great supplier to the world market thanks to the abundant forestry resources so it was necessary for the Government to make sure that the raw materials were legally obtained as certified by SLVK which would uplift buyers’ trust while a better trading atmosphere could be established. Dwi announced that the obligation to obtain SLVK applied to all holders of IUPHHK Business Permit whether they were natural forest [HPH], Industrial Plantation Forest [HTI], People’s Plantation Forest [HTR], or People’s Forest. Further he reminded that for forest managers who had not obtained SLVK certificate, the Government extended deadline till December 21, 2012 to apply for the certificate.

He admitted that the situation and development of SLHK mandatory scheme was still disheartening because the total expanse of natural forest and industrial forest covered by SLVK only came to 5.7 million hectares. And yet so far the total area of around 33.6 million hectares of natural and industrial forest supplied around 43.7 million industrial capacity of primary forest. He explained tat SLVK was in line with Regulation of the Ministry of Forestry Permenhut No 68/2011 and was a system for tracing wood legality through certification on condition: management of everlasting forest, fighting illegal logging, and improving credibility of wood of Indonesian origin

Business News - October 5, 2013

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