Perhutani vows to preserve forests

Perhutani vows to preserve forests

By Damar Harsanto

JEPARA, Central Java (JP): State-owned timber company PT
Perhutani has reiterated its commitment to manage its teak
forests in Central Java sustainably following American
certification body Rainforest Alliance's (RA) move to revoke its
ecolabeling certificates.

Perhutani's president Marsanto, M.S. maintained that the
revocation of its ecolabeling certificates by the certification
firm did not necessarily mean that the state company had failed
to manage its forests well.

"We remain committed to preserving our forests with or without
the ecolabeling certificates as the forest is our source of
livelihood," Marsanto told reporters, who were invited for a tour
of the company's operation last week.

RA has decided to temporarily suspend the ecolabeling
certificates it had awarded to Perhutani's forests, effective as
of Oct. 20, until the state company improves its management.

The forests in question are located in the districts of Cepu,
Kebonharjo, Kendal and Kedu.

"The suspension is mainly due to the company's noncompliance
to the standards required by the Forest Stewardship Council," RA
said in a statement released on Aug. 21 and available on its
website.

Forest Stewardship Council is the Mexico-based international
organization, which accredits certification firms in order to
guarantee the authenticity of their claims.

Perhutani has been blamed for failing to crack down on rampant
illegal tree-felling in the four districts and for not making
enough effort to reduce conflict with local people, according to
a source.

RA initially certified all Perhutani's forest operations under
the so-called SmartWood program in 1990.

However, the certification firm decided to review its
certification policy toward the state company in 1996 and 1997,
providing certificates to only four of the 57 forest districts it
managed.

The review was made because of the different and inconsistent
performance of the forest districts.

Now, as a result of RA's move, Perhutani has no certified
forest districts.

Perhutani manages all forests across Java, measuring 2.5
million hectares in total. The forests are divided into 57 forest
districts, consist of 1.92 million hectares of productive forest,
606,367 hectares of protected forest and 419,800 hectares of
national park and conservation zone.

The productive forests are located in Central Java and mostly
contain teak trees.

Perhutani is the only teakwood supplier in the country.

Responding to RA's criticism over illegal tree-felling and its
disputes with local people, Perhutani's spokesman Martono said
the state company had been working hard to curb illegal tree-
felling and solve disputes with locals.

But, he said it took a long time to find thorough solutions to
the problems.

The illegal tree-fellers were mostly locals backed by a
politically-connected group, he said.

The locals have continuously harassed the company because they
were not satisfied with the fact that they could not benefit from
the company's operations. Teak is one of the most expensive woods
on the local market.

"So, it's unfair to evaluate Perhutani's performance based
only on audits that were conducted over a short-term period," he
said, referring to audits carried out by RA.

RA said its decision to suspend Perhutani's ecolabeling
certificates was based on its annual audit of the state company's
four forest districts.

RA's move will deal a blow to local furniture-makers and
exporters who have been dependent on teakwood supplies from the
state company because by using teakwood from Perhutani they now
risk having their products rejected by foreign countries.

Several western countries, including Germany and the
Netherlands, have made it obligatory that all wood products have
ecolabeling certificates indicating that they are made of wood
produced by certified producers.

Alfiyatun, who runs furniture-exporting firm Jati Makmur in
Jepara, Central Java, said local furniture companies were now at
a loss about where to find certified teakwood after RA decided to
revoke Perhutani's ecolabeling certificate.

"RA's action may force the local furniture industry, which
employ a lot of people, to halt their operations as most of them
depend on Perhutani's teakwood supplies," Yusak Hasan, another
exporter said.

In Jepara alone, which is the country's largest teak furniture
production center, there are some 1,000 furniture makers,
employing tens of thousands people, according to Yusak.

But, RA's forestry division chief Richard Z. Donovan said the
RA would commit to providing alternative supplies of raw
materials for these companies.

"We're extremely sensitive to disruption from the suspension.
We have been pro-actively working to link them with teak
suppliers in Latin America, Trinidad, Ghana and India," Donovan
said.

Martono said the suspension was due to a misunderstanding
about the concept of sustainable forest management between
Perhutani and RA.

"For that reason, we will be grateful if RA maintains its
certification to Perhutani's forest districts. Otherwise, we can
look for other certification bodies," Martono said, adding that
the company was studying the possibility of receiving
certificates from other organizations.

Perhutani produces 700,000 cubic meters of teakwood per year.
Illegal tree-fellers have become rampant because of the high
demand for such wood, which according to Perhutani, amounts to
about 2.5 million cubic meters per year.