Five members of the Netherlands Timber Trade Association (NTTA) have been on a fact-finding mission to Indonesia to investigate the problem of illegal logging practices and the import of illegal timber.
The trip followed a study commissioned by the NTTA which revealed that not a single Indonesian supplier produces timber 100% legally. As NTTA members import approximately 100,000m3 of timber and plywood a year directly from Indonesia, and all members have signed the association’s code of conduct, the matter needed to be taken very seriously.
NTTA secretary Paul van den Heuvel said the Indonesian trip aimed to inform Indonesian organisations about the issues facing NTTA in its home country and to work with them to try and improve the situation.
He said that, based on the code of conduct and the results of the study, trade with Indonesian companies should be terminated.
However, after consulting Dutch stakeholders, it was concluded that that would not help solve illegal logging or move Indonesian forests towards sustainable management. Instead, continuing trade under strict conditions was seen as the better option.
Mr van den Heuvel said that while in Indonesia, Dutch delegates expressed their concern, offered collaboration and identified opportunities for obtaining verified legal timber in the shortest possible term. They discovered that a few Indonesian companies are now – or soon will be – able to provide verified legal timber produced in a sustainable manner.
And, said Mr van den Heuvel, it was clear that a memorandum of understanding between the Dutch and Indonesian governments could be a facilitating factor in the business-to-business approach whereby NTTA members trade exclusively with companies that have long-term concessions.
