In search of ecolabeling for forestry products

By Samsudin Berlian

JAKARTA (JP): It has been some time since the term "ecolabeling", or environmental labeling, entered the vocabulary of green movements, but so far little has been done to turn the words into action.

The term has been used more as a political tool in international trade talks -- especially among tropical wood exporters and industrialized countries under public pressure -- than it has been implemented as policy to boost environmental protection.

Former environmental minister Emil Salim, who currently leads a team of five task forces on forestry resources ecolabeling to pave way for the establishment of an Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency, said the industrialized countries cry forcefully about the need for ecolabeling without knowing the "how" of it. "There is a lot of talk but no substance," he said.

Emil told The Jakarta Post that those countries' leaders do so "to face domestic pressure, to show they are strong on environmental issues."

"It's not fair," Emil added, "the flag is environment but the load is domestic politics."

This situation can no more be blamed on the lack of sincerity among political decision makers -- in fact the European Community has decided to implement ecolabeling regulations in the year 2010 -- than on the fact that the term, though very clear in principle, is not detailed or specific enough to be endorsed as a working policy.

The basic idea of ecolabeling is that products should be labeled so consumers will know they have been manufactured without harming the environment, and that by using these products consumers will encourage manufacturers to protect the environment during production.

Emil likened the idea of ecolabeling to the ISO-9000 established recently by the International Standard Organization.

While the ISO-9000 deals with product quality, ecolabeling will deal with the processes of manufacturing, utilizing and exploiting resources as they relate to producing a product.

Emil said the ISO has formed a technical committee on environmental management to discuss the ecolabeling on various products. The committee will deal with problems such as toxic and hazardous wastes, pollution and other threats to the environment posed during a product's life cycle.

Emil said he expects Indonesia to accept the results of ISO's work on ecolabeling, expected to be completed soon, just as it accepts the ISO-9000.

But currently the ISO does not deal with ecolabeling as it relates to resource protection, Emil said, and this is where his five task forces come in.

Limiting itself to the ecolabeling of tropical woods resources, Emil's task forces -- four of them dealing with forest management, environment, socioeconomic issues, and ecolabeling; and the other one reviewing the works of the four -- will try to reformulate some principles of exploiting tropical forests into workable criteria.

Emil accepts the principles of both the Forest Stewardship Council (formed last year by non-governmental organizations including Greenpeace and World Wide Fund for Nature) and the Yokohama-based International Tropical Timber Organization (established by forestry companies and governments) which have determined that the forests should be sustainably managed, biodiversity should be maintained and the local community (indigenous population) should benefit from the exploitation.

But the principles are too broad and general, and so cannot be implemented as such. For example, they do not specify the criteria for determining whether the principles are being adhered to by forestry companies.

The two organizations are currently in the preliminary stages of establishing the specific criteria for ecolabeling on resource protection.

But Emil Salim said he cannot wait for them to complete their present tasks so he has invited Indonesian NGOs, forestry companies, government officials and experts in various fields to discuss the issue and to try to set the criteria.

Although he does not know exactly how the international bodies work, he said his approach to the efforts is likely to be different from theirs.

Emil is using fieldwork to approach the problem, that is, he is designating what should be examined on site to qualify timber product for ecolabeling.

After the criteria are formulated, assessor firms will need to assess the companies' performance in managing the forests sustainably, helping indigenous people improve their livelihood without destroying their identity and preserving the biodiversity.

A panel of experts will evaluate the results of the assessors' reports and grade the companies.

The task forces will test publicly listed forestry companies next month based on the criteria that have already been established. Then the work will be revised to alleviate the problems discovered during the testing period.

In the process of ecolabeling forestry companies, Emil said, the most important factor -- which will make all the efforts worthwhile -- is credibility.

Emil hopes to achieve it by maintaining open management, that is transparency in all his group's doings, and by soliciting the involvement of all interested parties, including international bodies, although the latter are not directly involved in the task forces.

The Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency -- expected to be functional by 1997 and chaired by Emil -- must work without being subject to pressure from interest groups. Emil said he expects the government to endow a permanent fund to the agency to make it financially independent.

While Emil's efforts are in line with the demands of international consumers, dissatisfaction with the one-sidedness of the demands, which concern only tropical forests, have been voiced by the Indonesian government and timber tycoon, Mohammad "Bob" Hasan.

Hasan does not object to ecolabeling tropical timber products, but he wants similar rules to apply to products from temperate or boreal forests.

"It is not fair to impose ecolabeling only on products from tropical forests owned by developing countries, while forestry products from temperate zones, mostly owned by developed countries...do not fall under the rule," Hasan said recently.

"A campaign is needed to impose ecolabeling on all products of all forests of this earth."

His concerns are understandable as Indonesia's timber exports were worth US$5.47 billion (Rp11.77 trillion) last year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Hasan also claims the industry directly supports 2.5 million families and indirectly supports another 1.5 million.

Dissatisfaction has also come from within. S. Indro Tjahjono, coordinator of the Indonesian NGO Network for Forest Conservation (Skephi) and head of the special task force whose job is to review the other four task forces, told the Post he expects more from their efforts.

"I am not satisfied," he said about the task forces' decision to let forestry companies chose for themselves if they want to "give" something to appease the indigenous population living in the forests through community development programs.

"The indigenous people have Adat (customary) rights over the forests, they should be counted as shareholders by right, not pity."

Indigenous people have lived in the forests for a long time and practically owned the forests until the companies, sanctioned by the government, come to claim them.

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