Forestry Department Discusses Pan ASEAN Timber Certification Initiative
Borneo Buletin, Wednesday 8 April 2009
By Edwin Eng & Azim Ghani
The Forestry Department yesterday held a Technical Discussion Session on Asean Criteria and Indicators for Legality of Timber and Chain of Custody Guidelines for Legal Timber and Sustainable Timber at the Kiulap Plaza Hotel.
The objective was to discuss and finalise the Asean Criteria and Indicators for Legality of Timber to be considered in the 8th Meeting of the working group on a Pan Asean Timber Certification Initiative and the Chain of Custody Guidelines for (i) Legal Timber and (ii) Sustainable Timber.
The working group for a Pan Asean Timber Certification Initiative aims to fulfill the target set in AEC blueprint and to support step-by-step approach towards Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).
The meeting started with an opening speech delivered by the Deputy Director of Forestry, Mr Mahmud Hj Yussof. In his speech, he said, "To ensure the achievement of SFM, we started out by formulating our national forest policy in 1989 and setting an ambitious target of designating and managing 55 per cent of our landmass to be gazetted under the Forest Reserve legislatively protected by the Forest Act.
"Strengthening the policy and legal framework is the first priority and under His Majesty's strong leadership, we managed to strengthen the national networks," he added.
Mr Dian Sutmajaya from the Asean Secretariat said that millions of people in the region depend primarily on forests for their livelihood, as well as forest exports and trade have contributed significantly to the economic development in the past and have the potential to continue to do so in the future.
Since its establishment in 2002, the working group has met seven times and in 2006, the group agreed on the principles of the phased-approach to forest certification (PACt) as well as to six elements to be included in the regional timber legality standard.
During the 7th meeting of the working group in Myanmar, organising a technical discussion session on Asean Criteria and Indicators (C & I) for Legality Timber and Chain of Custody guideline for legal Timber and sustainable timber had been recommended.
Brunei will be hosting the 8th working group meeting on April 8-9 in Bandar Seri Begawan. The agreed documents and guidelines from the meeting will pave the way to develop national timber legality standard in each country verification system and related guidelines.
The development of national verification will help to further develop Asean's forestry sector by improving performance standards and ensuring access of timber exports to important international markets such as Europe and the United States.
The working group on a Pan-Asean Timber Certification Initiative will work closely with various partners and donor agencies to conduct the needed capacity building activities and to support the holistic goal of sustainable forest management in Asean region.
