Behind the history,
Indonesian legal wood is one of a must Indonesian trade minister export documents for all Indonesian wood furniture product, pulp & paper.
In the beginning year 2000, Illegal logging massively happened in Indonesian forest especially in Java, Sumatera and Borneo.
Illegal logging is the harvesting, processing, transporting, buying or selling of timber in contravention of national and international laws.
In the year of 2001, The EU timber regulation aims to reduce illegal logging by ensuring that no illegal timber or timber products can be sold in the EU. It was created as part of the EU’s FLEGT action plan.
To responded EU regulation, Indonesia has made great progress in its efforts to eliminate illegal logging, including developing and improving a national timber legality assurance system called SVLK.
Indonesia and the EU have since negotiated a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to promote trade in legal timber products and improve forest governance. The VPA process provided significant opportunities to improve the SVLK.
In 2014, the two parties ratified the agreement and began implementing the VPA commitments. Then 2016, the EU and Indonesia confirmed that Indonesia had met the final requirements of the VPA, and Indonesian began issuing FLEGT licences on 15 November 2016.
Indonesian FLEGT licenced products are deemed to comply with requirements of the EU timber reglation. This means EU based operators don not need to do further due diligence before placing FLEGT-licenced products on the market.
Since 15 November 2016, products listed in the VPA’s revised annex 1 can no longer entering the EU unless they have a FLEGT licence.
Teak wood from Indonesian wood plantations are included in the scope of the SVLK, and thus must be SVLK certified, and must have V-Legal documents or FLEGT licences to be exported from Indonesis to the EU or other countries. Export of FLEGT-licenced timber automatically meet the requeirements of the EU timber regulation.
• SVLK (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu) is the acronym of Indonesia’s national timber legality assurance system, which is a mandatory legality and sustainability certification system built on a national multistakeholder concensus.
• FLEGT: FLEGT stands for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade. The EU’s FLEGT action plan was established in 2003. It aims to reduce illegal logging by strengthening sustainable and legal forest management, improving governance and promoting trade in legally produced timber
- Souce: MerryJam.com.hk