Certification for Indonesia’s timber trade
Illegal logging in Indonesian tropical forests is causing serious damage, but the introduction of a certification of origin system for the timber trade could help to slow deforestation. The European Union has asked Indonesia to establish such a system, which will show where wood imports have originated. But environmentalists claim only an international boycott on Indonesian wood will work.
The EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy met with Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, in January 2004, to encourage the use of certificates of origin for timber. The Indonesian government’s forestry department released data showing an approximate loss of 3.8 million hectares of tropical forests, 80 per cent of which are cut down illegally.
Standardising timber certification would help prevent sales of illegally
felled trees. But WALHI, the largest environmental group in Indonesia,
believes that widespread corruption in the forestry sector will prevent
the certification system from working properly.
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