The Association of Indonesian Forest Concession Holders (APHI) has called on the EU to jointly promote the Legality and Sustainability Verification System (SVLK) to further strengthen Indonesia’s efforts to improve forest governance in support of climate change action.
The SVLK is a certification system in Indonesia that verifies wood products sourced from Indonesia are produced from legally harvested wood.
Indroyono Soesilo, chairman of APHI, said that Indonesia and the EU have had a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VPA/FLEGT) since 2013. He commented that under the agreement, the EU has an obligation to promote FLEGT licenses in accordance with Article 13 of the VPA/FLEGT.
Indroyono said during a meeting with the EU Ambassador to Indonesia at the APHI office that Article 13 must be implemented to support FLEGT licensing. Despite being one of the main markets, exports of Indonesian wood products to the EU are still relatively small and that Indonesia needs support to expand its market share.
In response, the ambassador explained that EU consumers’ awareness of green products that are environmentally friendly is getting stronger, therefore fulfilling the elements of legality and sustainability is important. Regarding Article 13, the ambassador said this could be one of the points of discussion at the high-level meeting of the EU and Indonesia later in the year.
Source: ITTO
