Ecolabeling agency to audit operations of 16 timber firms
Ecolabeling agency to audit operations of 16 timber firms
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency (LEI) will
audit the operations of at least 16 timber companies this year to
ascertain if they deserve to receive ecolabeling certification,
the agency's chairman Emil Salim said here yesterday.
Emil said the ecolabeling audits would take place on a
voluntary basis.
He said the ecolabeling audit would benefit timber companies
because in the future submitting to such an audit would become a
prerequisite for selling timber products overseas.
"The ecolabeling assessments will start in July," Emil told
journalists after a meeting with Minister of Forestry and
Plantations Muslimin Nasution.
But Emil refused to name the 16 timber companies who would
submit to the inspection, saying that only the names of companies
which passed the test would be announced.
He said the audits would be conducted using a harmonized
formula agreed between the Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency, the
Ministry of Forestry and Plantations, and the Association of
Indonesian Forest Concessionaires, all of which previously had
different ecolabeling standards.
He said the three agencies completed the standardization of
ecolabeling procedures and criteria last year. If companies meet
the criteria of the new Sustainable Forest Management
Certification System they are awarded an ecolabeling certificate
known as an SNI 5000.
LEI was established in 1996 to promote sustainable forest
management by assessing Indonesian timber companies operations.
Emil said that ecolabeling certification would be needed to
enter into trade with European countries and the United States.
He added that these markets would become increasingly
important to Indonesian exporters because the traditional markets
of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea had cut imports from the
Indonesian forest sector as a result of their own economic
problems.
Indonesian timber companies will have to sell their products
to other markets if they want to survive, Emil said.
"Although ecolabeling is not compulsory for forest
concessionaires, they may not be able to access some foreign
markets without certification," he said.
The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), an
organization which groups consumer and producer countries,
believes that ecolabeling will become a prerequisite for tropical
timber producers to gain access to international markets after
the year 2000.
At least 19 countries have used ecolabeling since 1977,
including some members of the European Union, Canada, Japan, the
Scandinavian countries, the United States, New Zealand,
Australia, India, South Korea, Singapore, Croatia, Taiwan and
Israel.
Emil said that LEI was currently preparing 80 assessors who
would later be deployed to forest areas to asses the performance
of the 16 companies.
"Our assessors are professional experts who will independently
assess the management practices of forest concessionaires," he
said.
Emil said that he had reported on the preparations for the
assessment to the Minister of Forestry and Plantations earlier
yesterday.
He said the minister was very supportive of the program and
suggested the agency place greater emphasis on timber companies'
activities designed to enhance the quality of life of local
people living in the forest areas.
"The minister said that timber companies have to improve the
lives of local people if their operations are to be in line with
the principle that the forests are for the people," Emil said.
The director general of forest utilization, Harnanto H.M.,
said last month that only 26 of the 70 forest concessionaires
assessed by LEI during its pilot phase in 1996 were considered
"adequately prepared" to meet ecolabeling requirements while none
were considered "fully prepared". (gis)