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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