Indonesia urged to speed up adoption of ecolabeling

Indonesia urged to speed up adoption of ecolabeling

JAKARTA (JP): Analysts stressed on Monday the need for the
country's forestry-related companies to speed up the adoption of
ecolabeling in order to maintain their export market and ensure
the sustainability of forest resources.

World Wide Fund for Nature's executive director Agus Purnomo
said most importers and consumers in developed countries demanded
that timber products be derived from sustainably managed forests.

"The market mechanism will promote the adoption of
ecolabeling," he said in a one-day seminar held by the WWF.

Purnomo added the international market would select timber
companies which fulfilled ecological standards, but shun those
which damaged forest resources.

"The requirement of ecolabeling will promote sustainable
forest management," he said.

According to the International Tropical Timber Organization,
ecolabeling will become a prerequisite for tropical timber
producers to gain access to international markets, especially in
the United States and Europe, after 2000.

WWF's deputy director Togu Manurung said many businesspeople
believed the adoption of ecolabeling would pose additional
problems to timber firms which were suffering from an acute
shortage of logs.

Manurung noted figures from the forestry ministry showing the
wood processing industry's total installed capacity was 60
million cubic meters, while sustainable harvests of forests in
the country could produce only 20 million cubic meters of wood.

"The severe shortage has prompted illegal logging even in
conservation areas," he added.

WWF estimated the rate of illegal forest clearing at 2.4
million hectares annually, up from 900,000 hectares in the late
1980s.

An executive of the Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency, Hariadi
Kartodihardjo, told the seminar that only one of 16 timber
companies audited by the agency obtained certification, but three
more would receive it in the near future.

He cited mismanagement in the national forestry sector, saying
the touting of the country's huge amount of forest resources led
to wasteful exploitation.

"The ecolabeling should be promoted as a means of further
developing the timber industry through sustainable resource
management."

He said the imposition of ecolabeling would also make the
supervision and monitoring of forest management more transparent.

However, he added that the government should pioneer the
adoption of ecolabeling.

"Without political will, the government is unlikely to make
any progress in this matter."

The Indonesian Plywood Association requested a clear standard
on ecolabeling certification by taking into account the diverse
forest conditions and different interpretations on sustainable
forest management.

Ideally, the association said in a presentation at the
seminar, the standard should meet two requirements of being
applicable to specific local forestry conditions and acceptable
to the international market.

It said since the ISO 14001 standard on environmental
management already encompassed sustainable forest management as
well as production stages, the certification should also be
classified as green labeling (ecolabeling).

The association argued that different ecological standards
would only add to production costs, in addition to the complex
process of certifying firms. (06)