Independent evaluation by NGOs reveals fundamental flaws in SVLK allowing certification of illegal and unsustainable timber products

Jakarta -- Today (18/3), a coalition of NGOs calls on the Government of Indonesia to improve its forest management certification system known as Timber Legality Assurance System (SVLK). An in-depth investigation of SVLK and it’s implementation found a number of shortcomings, in its definition of “legal timber”, certification standard and criteria, actual certification of individual forest management units, and the performance of some certification agencies accredited by the Government.  

On 27 February 2014, the European Parliament ratified the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the Government of Indonesia. The VPA is designed to foster improvements in forest governance and forest law enforcement and to support sustainable forest management  as well as worldwide efforts to stop deforestation and forest degradation.  One of the elements of the VPA is to ensure that Indonesian timber products imported into the European Union, which are covered by the VPA are produced, harvested and shipped in compliance with the laws and regulations of Indonesia.

This marks the beginning of the last phase of a long process starting in September 2001 with Indonesia hosting the first Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) Ministerial Conference in the East Asia and Pacific region. In 2003, the EU adopted the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan which identified Indonesia as a key exporting country with serious illegal logging issues. The EU action plan included several measures, including the negotiation of voluntary bi-lateral agreements with countries facing illegal logging issues. A subsequent regulation specified the rules for FLEGT Licensing Schemes with partner countries to ensure that only legal timber products enter the EU market in the framework of the agreement 6 . In 2007, Indonesia started negotiating a VPA with the EU7.
 
Under the VPA, Indonesia needs to: (1) define the country’s laws and regulations that apply to the forestry sector, and (2) develop a system that verifies the legality of the country’s timber exports to the EU against these laws. After a long multi-stakeholder dialogue involving government, trade associations and civil society organizations, the legal definition of Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS, or in Indonesian Standar System Verifikasi Legalitas, SVLK) was established in two regulations in 2009 (Forestry Minister’s Decree P.38/Menhut-II/2009 8  and Director General of Forestry Enterprise Regulation No. P.6/VI-Set/20099). They define not only timber legality but also sustainable forest management. They are framed around key principles covering essential aspects of forest production and processing and associated criteria, indicators and verifiers, as well as verification guidelines describing the method and appraisal norm to be used. 

Indonesia made SVLK certification mandatory for all timber producing, trading, processing and exporting companies. A number of independent certification & verification bodies were accredited by the Indonesian National Accreditation Committee (KAN) to audit the operations of forestry companies. Audits are based on
the assessment standards for legality or sustainable forest management and certificates are issued for Timber Legality (Legalitas Kayu, LK) or Sustainable Production Forest Management (Pengelolaan Hutan
Produksi Lestari, PHPL). V-legal documents are issued for exporters.
 
A complimentary measure to the Voluntary Partnership Agreements, the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) became active in March 2013, prohibiting the sale of illegally harvested timber products in the EU. The EUTR accepts FLEGT licensed products from VPA partner countries, automatically declaring them as legal. FLEGT licensing of Indonesian products can commence only when the SVLK system is proven to provide a
credible guarantee of legality.

For more information, please kindly contact:

• Zenzi Suhadi (WALHI): +62 813 8450 2601, zenzi.fujiyama@gmail.com.
• Nursamsu (WWF Indonesia): +62 811 7582 217+62 811 7582 217, nursamsu@wwf.or.id.
• Sulhani (Relawan Pemantau Hutan Kalimantan – RPHK, Kalimantan Forest Monitoring NGOs Coalition)
  RPHK includes Titian, Link-AR Borneo, SamPan Kalimantan, Kontak Rakyat Borneo (KRB), and WWF-Indonesia West Kalimantan Program
  Tel: +62 561 6589 198
• Riko Kurniawan (Eyes on the Forest (EoF)): +62 813 7130 2269

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