Depressed and elated is how Andy Roby described his mood after a trip to Indonesia to catch up on the battle against illegal logging. “On one hand there’s high profile commitment to protect the timber resource, especially in president Megawati and forest minister Prakosa,” he said. “But in sections of the industry the wheels are turning slowly. We found mills still buying from the unregulated open market and only able to account for the source of 30-70% of their timber.”

Mr Roby, who is on secondment to The Timber Trade Federation from the Department for International Development (DFID) went on the January fact-finding tour with Ita Rugge of the TTF‘s Forest Forever programme. It was a follow-up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on illegal logging penned by UK and Indonesian governments last year. The aim of this is to stop Indonesian products based on illegal wood reaching the UK and, ultimately, to stop them being made at all. Besides statements of intent, the initiative involves help to set up chain of custody systems and improve technical support, with cash from DFID’s £23m ‘civil society’ aid programme for Indonesia.

The TTF team visited plywood mills and forest concessions in East Kalimantan and talked with representatives of APKINDO and APHI, the plywood and forestry sector associations. They also represented UK traders at an Asian Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) conference in Jakarta.

Confusion

Overall, the trip underlined that Indonesia is in a state of flux after the demise of the Suharto regime.

“They are regaining some form of democracy and decentralisation, which is positive,” said Mr Roby. “But at the moment transfer of control to the regions is proving horrendous for forestry. It’s unclear who is making the law or allocating forest concessions.

“Prakosa has pledged to reduce Indonesia’s annual cut from 24 million m3 to a sustainable 6.9 million m3 and is launching a plan to downsize the industry. But on the ground you get a serious reality check. Some mills just want to carry on as normal and it’s difficult to see how they can achieve this reduction quickly.”

The fragmentation of forest concessions and allocation of small lots to local communities by regional government is a particular headache.

“Some ‘community forestry’ is a licence to print money locally – it’s land clearance by another name,” said Mr Roby.

Code of Practice

&#8220International processes on timber purchasing are falling into place and the Indonesian response to the TTF Code of Conduct was positive. Although the country’s state of flux is causing problems, it also creates opportunities for change”

Andy Roby

That was the downside. What cheered Mr Roby and Ms Rugge – besides central government pledges on timber eco issues – was the enthusiasm of many individuals in the industry to improve performance, plus their interest in the TTF’s Environmental Code of Practice and purchasing policy.

“We told them that TTF members are committed to complying with the Code and buying legal timber products and asked ‘what are you going to do about it?’. Many said they were keen to work with us.”

The trip also triggered positive ideas for the future. One was that the TTF should focus communication about the Code of Practice on mills most involved in the UK market. “The companies we visited shipped at most 5% of production to the UK, so our influence is limited. We’d have greater impact with, say, the top 10 mills supplying the UK,” said Mr Roby.

He also suggested that if importers set up some form of buying group, together they might have even greater leverage on mills’ environmental practice.

Another possibility is accreditation of local assessors who could evaluate Indonesian mills against parameters and protocols set by the UK trade.

Encouraged by support

Mr Roby was also encouraged by support for reform at the FLEG conference, which drew delegates from the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Thailand.

“Another positive is that China has now signed an MOU with Indonesia closely modelled on the UK’s,” said Mr Roby. “The EU is also working on its own memorandum which will overlay ours. And there are reports that Japan will sign an MOU with Indonesia too. We’re waiting for confirmation of this, but there’s a groundswell of support – in fact, the Japanese Federation of Wood Industry Association was so enthusiastic about the TTF Code of Conduct they translated it into Japanese!

“If we do get common purchasing policies for China, the EU and Japan, that would cover 75% of Indonesia’s exports – that’s a lot of leverage.”

So, on balance, Mr Roby’s post-Indonesia elation seems to have outweighed the depression.

“Progress is slow and officials need to get their skates on. They must establish a base-line definition for legal logging and enforce it locally,” he said. “On the positive side, international processes on timber purchasing are falling into place and the Indonesian response to the TTF Code of Conduct was positive. And although the country’s state of flux is causing problems, it also creates opportunities for change.”