In search of ecolabeling for forestry products

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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