RI, Malaysia to counter anti-timber campaigns

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to cooperate in countering anti-tropical timber campaigns, launched by global environmentalist groups, which have disrupted the timber trade of both countries.

The cooperation agreement was reached yesterday by forestry officials from both countries at the conclusion of the ninth Indonesia-Malaysia Forestry Workshop, in Penang, Malaysia.

"Several consumer countries have imposed higher import tariffs on plywood made from hardwood species -- which mostly comes from tropical regions -- than on plywood which comes from non-tropical countries," said Indonesian Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo.

Djamaludin said in Penang that the three-day workshop placed special emphasis on Japan, which restricts construction contractors from using tropical timber, reported Antara.

Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to ask Japan and other consumer countries to give equal access to all kinds of timber regardless of origin, he said.

"Both countries have agreed to defend this stance in every international forum possible. This way, developed countries will refrain from arguing about the type of timber when imposing tariffs," Djamaludin said.

Concern

He expressed concern over the need for tropical forest- products to abide by ecolabeling requirements by the year 2000, as stipulated by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). The ITTO groups both consumer and producer countries of tropical timber.

Ecolabeling requirements state that timber must come from forests which are managed in an environmentally-sound manner.

Djamaludin considered the ITTO ecolabeling ruling unfair because the ruling is not applied to non-tropical timber.

Indonesia and Malaysia plan to insist the ecolabeling ruling is imposed on non-tropical timber products, this will include timber from boreal and temperate forests.

Malaysian Deputy Minister of Primary Industry Siti Zainab said counter-attacks against anti-tropical timber campaigns will be launched by both countries.

There is a possibility the anti-tropical timber campaigns are not purely environmental, but are backed by business motives, acknowledged Zainab.

"Maybe the producers of non-tropical timber are jealous of tropical-timber countries," she said.

If forest development was carried out in an environmentally- sound manner, tropical forests would remain sustainable, said Zainab.

Malaysia and Indonesia are major producers of tropical timber. Plywood is the second largest non-oil revenue-earner after textile products in Indonesia.

The two countries also agreed to jointly collect data on tropical timber species, particularly on ramin and merbau wood, both of which are on the brink of extinction.

Malaysia and Indonesia proposed to have both species added to the endangered list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). (pwn)