Forest firms all set for labeling

Forest firms all set for labeling

JAKARTA (JP): Fifty of Indonesia's forest concessionaires will
be examined to qualify for ecolabeling certification, which will
be required for the exportation of wood products in the coming
years, an executive of the country's forestry association says.

"The association has selected 50 concessionaires which we
think should qualify for ecolabeling certificates. It was not the
concessionaires who forwarded this idea but it was us," Hendro
Prastowo, executive chairman of the Indonesian Forestry Society,
was quoted by Antara as saying in New York on Saturday.

Hendro was in New York to accompany Minister of Forestry
Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo for a meeting on sustainable
development with the United Nations.

The executive did not identify the 50 concessionaires, nor
when the ecolabeling process will take place.

The International Tropical Timber Organization, the main
governing body of global tropical timber trade, has ruled that by
2000 all exported wood products from tropical forests must be
produced under environmentally-friendly conditions stipulated in
ecolabeling certificates.

No such requirement is imposed on wood products from mild
climate forests.

Timber is a major source of foreign exchange for Indonesia,
which exported wood products worth nearly US$5.5 billion in 1993,
almost 15 percent of the country's total exports.

There are around 500 forest concessionaires in Indonesia at
present.

In Indonesia, the appraisal for the ecolabeling process will
be conducted by an independent body called the Ecolabeling
Foundation, which is chaired by a former state minister of
environment, Emil Salim.(hdj)