In March this year, a group of Indonesian civil society representatives concerned with forestry issues made a two-week visit to Europe. Their focus was the European Union's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative. The trip, facilitated by the UK-Indonesian NGO partnership, EIA/Telapak, included Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Denmark, and started with the European Commission in Bruxelles.
As in last year's lobby tour, the aims were to give information about developments in the Indonesia's forestry sector to each country visited, and to voice Indonesian civil society's concerns relating to FLEGT and the Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs). These are part of the FLEGT Action Plan, adopted in 2003. (For more on legality, FLEGT and VPAs, see DTE 67).
Christian Poerba (FWI) explained how maps and the interpretation of data on Indonesia's forests and wood processing industry could help identify potentially illegal activities by logging and plantation companies. Jikalahari's co-ordinator, Zulfahmi, showed graphically how demand to supply Riau's huge paper pulp industry has devastated the province's forests and urged that pulp be included in the list of products for VPAs. The Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute, LEI, outlined progress towards an Indonesian legality standard, the final version of which is due for public discussion in June.
Telapak addressed the need to combat 'forest crime' through existing Indonesian anti-money laundering and anti-corruption legislation in an integrated approach, not simply high profile anti-illegal logging operations like OHL II (see DTE 65). The Indonesian Working Group on Finance outlined how, through agreements with the Forestry and Justice Departments, Indonesia's police and banks, the Financial Intelligence Unit (PPATK) can be used to investigate the powerful backers of illegal logging operations.
Yuyun Indradi, representing the indigenous people's alliance, AMAN, drew attention to the widespread conflict over the control of forest resources resulting from the government's failure to respect the customary rights of indigenous peoples. Indonesia's recent ratification of international conventions on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights and Civil & Political Rights opens new opportunities to address social justice issues.
More information on Indonesian CSOs' position is at www.illegal-logging.info/textonly/events/Briefing_note_on_FLEGT_and_Indonesia.doc and www.illegal-logging.info/events/ICS_Position_Paper_for_FLEGT.doc
A meeting with the European Commission was facilitated by Foreign Affairs, and attended by staff from the Directorates General for Trade, Foreign Affairs, Aid, Development and Environment. The discussion focussed on social responsibility and importing licensing schemes as forms of the reciprocal action called for by Indonesian civil society. The European Commission basically agrees that, to ensure that wood products imported to European markets are from legal sources, the EU needs a regulation that requires imported wood products to be traceable. However, the bureaucratic EU policy-making procedure and the process of reaching agreement between the EU's 25 member states are obstacles to progress.
Although the European Parliament takes decisions which affect all its members, the level of understanding about Indonesian forest issues and the international timber trade differs greatly among them. There are also differences in commitment to action and differences in the interpretation of EU policy.
Dutch MPs from the majority party told the Indonesian party much the same as the Commission staff in a discussion facilitated by Milieudefensie, AidEnvironment and Greenpeace. Bureaucratic procedures in government and the length of time needed to draft laws in the Netherlands meant that a law preventing the import of illegally sourced timber was still somewhere in the future. But the parliamentarians promised to press the government to start the drafting process or to change existing legislation which could stop illegal wood products entering the market.
Denmark's measures to prevent illegally sourced imports are more advanced. Here the government has implemented voluntary Procurement Policy Guidelines for timber and wood products. The NGO Nepenthes, WWF and environment and development NGOs in the Danish 92 Group are pressing the government to make these mandatory and to develop their social content. In response, the Danish government has begun a review of the guidelines, including the Malaysia Timber Certification Council legality standard, currently used as a reference. However, the MTCC is very weak on community rights.
The final two-day visit to London, included meetings with minister for international development, Gareth Thomas, and a discussion on FLEGT/VPA and legality in Indonesia, specially facilitated by the policy research organisation, Royal Institute for International Affairs. Civil servants, business sector representatives, NGOs and academics joined the discussion. No existing legislation in the UK is effective to prevent the trade in illegal timber, but the government is currently reviewing the options. The UK does insist that all timber purchased by the government is from legal and preferably sustainable sources. However, its policy is different from the Danish one in that it excludes social criteria. Here again the Indonesian CSOs felt the UK could make more effort to set a legal precedent in its FLEGT commitments.
Fundamentally, the international timber trade raises issues of ethics, responsibility and accountability, all related to social and environmental issues. The devastation of forests in Indonesia, and the resulting suffering and poverty among indigenous/local people living in and around forests which once provided their livelihoods, is a reality that will persist if both producer and consumer countries do not feel they are responsible for the impacts of producing wood and of profiting from the trade in wood products. This long and exhausting process may well fail to yield any result, if, both in the short and longer term, these countries' commitments are not given more concrete form. This is what is needed if FLEGT is not just to become another piece of international political rhetoric.