A delegation from Indonesia’s Ministry of Forests and the country’s forest industry was in London recently to explain what steps are being taken to curb illegal logging.

The Timber Trade Federation (TTF) hosted the event which was attended by government representatives, NGOs and TTF members.

Suhariyanto Suharno, Indonesian Ministry of Forests director-general of forest production, outlined his country’s stance on illegal logging and asked UK stakeholders to work with Indonesia to help stamp it out and promote good practice.

UK government representative Hugh Speechly said if the big players in the illegal logging trade were targeted progress might be made.

He suggested promoting international policy coherence, adding: “We need to monitor, product track and have information exchange.”

&#8220We now have a good base line to work from and all the mills we visited indicated their willingness to improve the situation”

Scott Poynton of the Tropical Forest Trust

The Indonesian delegation described how BRIK – the forest industry modernisation board – works. All Indonesian companies wishing to export must be endorsed by BRIK which tracks the logs from their source through to processing and export via a bar coding system.

Scott Poynton of the Tropical Forest Trust outlined progress on the TTF scoping study, saying that the 16 Indonesian mills that opened their doors for inspection should be applauded. “We now have a good base line to work from and all the mills we visited indicated their willingness to improve the situation.”

The not so good news, he said, was that many logs are still from dubious sources and are being exported despite BRIK. “We need to look at how we can work together to tighten this up.”

A draft of the scoping study is due to be published on February 16 and Mr Poynton said: “I am convinced that it is possible to get legal and ultimately sustainable wood from Indonesia, but there is a lot of hard work ahead to get there.”