Bogor, 05/2 (Repub­lika): The Indone­sian Eco­lable Insti­tute (LEI), s a Com­mu­nity Based Orga­ni­za­tion (CBO) of which mis­sion is to give shape to sus­tain­able and fair for­est man­age­ment prac­tices, stated that encour­ag­ing the rise of for­est indus­try does not nec­es­sar­ily mean clear­ing out for­est areas
“The gov­ern­ment needs to seek other alter­na­tives from com­mu­nity for­est plan­ta­tion and non-wood for­est prod­ucts. Non-wood for­est prod­ucts gen­er­ated from sus­tain­able com­mu­nity based nat­ural for­est might con­tribute to state income through the car­bon trade scheme,” said Indra S Dewi, LEI’s Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Advo­cacy Man­ager, Thurs­day morning.

She con­veyed the state­ment to ANTARA with regards to LEI CBO CONGRESS II to be con­ducted in Bogor on Fri­day (6/2)
Sched­uled to be opened by the Min­ster of Forestry, MS. Kaban a one day sem­i­nar will also be held after the Con­gress. The one day sem­i­nar is a col­lab­o­ra­tive work of LEI, For­est Watch Indonesi (FWI) and Ala­iansi Masyarakat Adat Nusan­tara (AMAN)

With the thome of “Dis­cov­er­ing Alter­na­tives of Laws for Com­mu­nity Based Sus­tain­able For­est man­age­ment”, the sem­i­nar invites forestry experts from indus­try sec­tor, NGO, com­mu­nity and other stake­hold­ers from all over Indone­sia.
Indra stated that the var­i­ous gov­ern­ment strate­gies to save the declin­ing for­est indus­try show no pos­i­tive impacts.

The above con­di­tion can be seen in the decreas­ing size of nat­ural for­est areas, the dimin­ish­ing num­ber of con­ces­sion­aires, only 312 in 2008. Despite the fact, Indra added, the gov­ern­ment still put their focus on the prod­ucts gen­er­ated from wood for­est.
The sit­u­a­tion is worsen by the fact that the recent forestry min­is­ter pol­icy which states that the for­est con­ces­sion­ary right can be extended until 2014 from the pre­vi­ous limit in 2009.

“It seems that the gov­ern­ment runs out of choice in devel­op­ing the for­est indus­try,” she added.
“For that mat­ter”, she con­tin­ued, “The key fac­tor for the rise of Indone­sian for­est indus­try is by acknowl­edg­ing Com­mu­nity Based For­est in for­mal law.”
“For­est which is planted and man­aged by com­mu­nity in the form of Com­mu­nity For­est at the moment is the biggest sup­porter for the wood indus­try in Java,” she said.

Main­stay
Accord­ing to Indra, fur­ni­ture indus­try of which rely­ing its mate­r­ial from com­mu­nity for­est has been expe­ri­enc­ing great devel­op­ment for the past three years.

Indra refers the data from ASMINDO (Indone­sian Craft and Fur­ni­ture Asso­ci­a­tion) indi­cat­ing that from the year 2005 to 2007 the export value has been rais­ing from USD 1.79 bil­lion in 2005 to USD 1.81 bil­lion in 2007. The value raised to USD 1.96 bil­lion in 2007.

The prod­ucts con­sist of table, chair, cab­i­net made of rat­tan, wood and bam­boo. The main mate­ri­als, espe­cially rat­tan, are sup­plied by the farm­ers from out­side Java such as Sulawesi, Sumat­era and Kali­man­tan.
“In addi­tioin, Asmindo noted that the the export value in 2008 has reached the num­ber of USD 2 bil­lion,” she said. This is evi­dence that the fur­ni­ture indus­try increase can not be sep­a­rated from the use of legal and envi­ron­men­tally friendly mate­ri­als. This also involves log­ging woods in an appro­pri­ate vol­ume in accor­dance to the appro­pri­ate capac­ity and per­form­ing refor­esta­tion program.

Indra also said that the eco­la­bel cer­ti­fied fur­ni­ture prod­ucts will be placed at a spe­cific loca­tion at the IFFNA exhi­bi­tion in Jakarta March 2009.

Indra stressed that non-wood for­est prod­ucts gen­er­ated from sus­tain­able com­mu­nity based nat­ural for­est might con­tribute to state income through the car­bon trade scheme. To be included in the car­bon trade scheme it is required that the for­est area must be man­aged in a sus­tain­able way.

Some of the tra­di­tional for­est areas, man­aged by tra­di­tional com­mu­nity group, have been man­aged in a sus­tain­able way. One of the exam­ples is the for­est area man­aged by Dayak Iban tribe in Sun­gai Utik, Kapuas Hulu Dis­trict of Kali­man­tan Barat Province, close to the Indonesia-Malaysia border.

The Iban com­mu­nity only uti­lize a total area of 9,452 ha to meet their needs of hous­ing, hunt­ing, farm­ing and other daily needs. Their main liveli­hood is to har­vest rub­ber for sale.

She said that in 2008, the Dayak Iban of Sun­gai Utik has received the eco­la­bel cer­tifi­cate, wit­nessed by the Forestry Min­is­ter, MS. Kaban. Ant/fif