LEI ready to provide ecolabeling services
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency (LEI) has announced it is ready to assess and issue certifications to Indonesian timber companies for environmentally sound practices.
LEI's chairman, Emil Salim, said yesterday the ecolabeling agency, in cooperation with the Ministry of Forestry and the Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI), had completed the standardization of its ecolabeling procedures and criteria.
"The three agencies discussed ecolabeling standardization and came up with a harmonized formula which is based on sustainable forest management," he said after signing an agreement between the agency and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).
He noted that the three agencies previously had different ecolabeling standards.
The newly established Sustainable Forest Management Certification System stipulates national standards for managing forest concessions in a sustainable manner.
Timber companies found to have sustainable practices according to the standards will receive a certification under the system.
LEI was established in 1996 to promote sustainable forest management by assessing Indonesian timber company operations.
Timber companies or concessionaires are required to have sustainable forest management practices and promote the economic and social life of people living around their concessions in order to receive an ecolabeling certification.
ITTO, which groups consumer and supplier countries, has stipulated that from 2000, ecolabeling would become a prerequisite for suppliers of tropical timber to gain access to markets in some countries.
At least 19 countries have used ecolabeling since 1977. These country's include members of the European Union, Canada, Japan, Scandinavian countries, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, India, South Korea, Singapore, Croatia, Taiwan and Israel.
ITTO signed an agreement yesterday to provide a US$672,774 grant to LEI for a human resources training program for ecolabeling assessments.
The Ministry of Forestry will also provide Rp 285 million ($30,000) for the LEI training program.
Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said the training program would produce professional experts which could independently assess management practices of forest concessionaires.
He said ecolabeling would benefit timber companies since it was increasingly becoming a requirement before selling to overseas buyers.
"Although ecolabeling is not compulsory for forest concessionaires, they may not be able to access some foreign markets without the certifications," he said.
He said ministry and APHI data showed that only 70 percent of the country's 470 concessionaires were deemed prepared for the implementation of ecolabeling in 2000.
Out of 76 concessionaires assessed last year, 13 were "adequately prepared", 36 were "fairly prepared", 25 were "poorly prepared" while two were "totally unprepared".
LEI has run ecolabeling trials on 14 of 70 proposed concessionaires, including the giant PT Kiani Lestari, PT ITCI and Sumalindo. The trial's results were "quite good" on average, according to the minister. (gis)