Indonesia to make suggestions to UN on global forestry
Indonesia to make suggestions to UN on global forestry
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia is compiling recommendations on sustainable forest
management to submit to the United Nation Forum on Forest (UNFF),
which will convene in New York in May for its fifth annual
meeting.
"We have gathered an array of opinions from stakeholders in a
one-day workshop that we just finished," Tonny Soehartono, the
Ministry of Forestry's director of the Center of Forestry
Planning, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The ministry-sanctioned workshop was attended by heads of
forestry agencies in nine provinces, senior officials from the
central government, academicians, domestic and international non-
governmental organizations and forestry-related business
associations.
Tonny explained that the results of the workshop would be
recommended to Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban, who would
consult the House of Representatives before presenting
Indonesia's recommendations on sustainable forest management to
the UNFF meeting.
The UNFF international forum was founded in 2000 to promote
the management, conservation and sustainable development of all
types of forests and to strengthen long-term commitment to this
end.
Members of the UNFF are considering two alternatives on
sustainable forest management based on legally binding or non-
legally binding agreements.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Director General for
Multilateral Economy, Monetary and Development Susanto Sutoyo
explained that the legally binding agreements would have legal
authority over member countries. They would require a
comprehensive international forestry convention that would
alternatively be based on technical, geographical or biological
diversity frameworks.
"If we agree on legally binding agreements, we will create a
role-based society based on existing laws and regulations," he
told the workshop.
He said that apart from providing legal certainty, such
agreements would also provide more financial access and a clearer
focus on sustainable forest management.
However, it will require a long process of discussion and may
discourage some key countries from participating, he added.
Susanto said the non-legally binding agreements offered
several alternatives -- continuation or modification of UNFF
mechanisms, termination of the UNFF while improving the role of
the Committee on Forestry of the Food and Agriculture
Organization or merging the committee with the International
Tropical Timber Organization.
Indonesia, the third largest forestry country in the world,
still faces several obstacles in its sustainable forest
management. The most acute problem for Indonesia is illegal
logging.
The country loses nearly two million hectares of forests
annually, according to the World Resources Institute, Global
Forest Watch and Forest Watch Indonesia. (003)