Thursday, November 17, 2016
The landmark Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) licensing agreement between the European Union and Indonesia officially came into effect from November 15 to keep illegal logged timber out of EU supply chains.
After 14 years of system development and nine years in a Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU, Indonesia has finally become the first country in the world to be granted a FLEGT licence. In future, timber products from Indonesia will not need to go through due dilligence process and will automatically enter the green lane of customs on arrival in the EU.
However, Indonesia must continue to work hard to maintain the credibility of their Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) through proven serious commitment to act on findings of TLAS implementation violations. Various violation reports submitted by independent investigators – such as findings on maladministration, license forgery and fraud through practices of borrowing other company names – must be followed up with effective law enforcement. Moreover, strengthening the TLAS standard through improvement of various policies is also critical in order to achieve sustainable and just forest management.
Muhamad Kosar, National Coordinator of Indonesia’s Independent Forest Monitoring Network (JPIK), said: “This progress must be appreciated and taken as proof of serious commitment from various stakeholders in Indonesia in an effort to reform the forestry sector formally rife with illegality and corruption. This initiative has forced various stakeholders to improve and demonstrate their accountability, which in the long term will improve forest governance. To date, TLAS is the one and only system in the world that was developed with multi-stakeholder participation to root out the illegal timber trade and deforestation. Through this scheme, all timber business actors and their practices are now being audited to ensure compliance to law and regulation.”
Faith Doherty, Forest Campaign Leader with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “The European Union must carry the same burden of responsibility as the Government of Indonesia to ensure EU countries only receive legal timber. Moreover, the EU must continue to strengthen the implementation of the EU Timber Regulation and ensure appropriate monitoring and law enforcement, while also swiftly following up information on illegal timber trade entering the EU, including information submitted by independent investigators.”
Tags: agreement, european union, illegal logging, illegal timber, indonesia, license, logged timber, timber, Timber trade, trade
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