The Indonesian National Standards Development Group (SDG), an independent chamber-balanced group representing environmental, economic and social chambers from various organizations, has developed the Forest Stewardship Standard – a comprehensive tool for the promotion of responsible forest management in Indonesia. The standard has since been approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and will be effective by 1 December 2020.
Consultancy groups Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia and Asia Pacific Consulting Solutions facilitated the development group.
According to official documents, the FSC Principles and Criteria, together with a set of national indicators approved by FSC Policy and Standards Committee (PSC), constitute an FSC National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS).
The Principles and Criteria of the NFSS states that compliance with legislation (including government regulations) is one of the key pre-requisites for obtaining a FSC certificate. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia (MoEF) currently implements a mandatory scheme of Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS), or in Indonesian, the Sistem Veri-fikasi Legalitas Kayu (SVLK). The SVLK has been endorsed by the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and the Eupeon Union Timber Regulation as an FLEGT License. In addition to the SVLK, MoEF has in place a sustainable forest management certification system called the Sustainable Production Forest Management certification system, or Pengelolaan Hutan Produksi Lestari (PHPL).
The requirements of SVLK and PHPL, alongside with other laws and regulations of Indonesia, were taken into consideration during the development of the NFSS to ensure that FMUs comply with the respective government laws and regulations on timber legality.
