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)