Small timber firms asked to merge

JAKARTA (JP): Small and medium sized timber companies should merge with large ones to enable them to meet ecolabeling requirements, an executive has said.

The chairman of East Kalimantan's chapter of the Indonesian Forestry Society, BS Suba, said over the weekend that unlike big concessionaires, small and medium sized concessionaires would hardly be able to fulfill all ecolabeling requirements.

"As a way out, they should merge with big concessionaires," Suba was quoted by Antara as saying.

Ecolabeling ruling requires timber companies or concessionaires have sustainable forest management and promote the economic and social life of people living around their concession.

The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) -- which groups consumer and producer countries -- has stipulated that from the year 2000 ecolabeling would become a prerequisite for producers of tropical timber to gain access to markets in some countries.

At least 19 countries have been using ecolabeling since 1977. They include members of the European Union, Canada, Japan, Scandinavian countries, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, India, South Korea, Singapore, Croatia, Taiwan and Israel.

Ministry of Forestry figures show only 70 percent of the 470 concessionaires are deemed prepared for the implementation of ecolabeling in 2000.

The Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency has run ecolabeling trials on 14 of the 70 prepared concessionaires, including PT Kiani Lestari, PT ITCI and PT Sumalindo. The trial's results were "quite good".

Indonesia and Malaysia last year expressed concern over the ecolabeling requirement which was applied only for tropical- forest products.

They insisted the ecolabeling ruling should also be imposed on non-tropical timber products. (jsk)