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.