(March 10 2008, Jakarta, Kom­pas): The gov­ern­ment is prepar­ing var­i­ous incen­tives for fur­ni­ture and craft indus­tries deter­mine to imple­ment and already received sus­tain­able for­est man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.
One of the incen­tives already pro­vided for the cer­ti­fied com­pany is in the form of wood log­ging per­mit or annual work pro­gram (RKT).

In the near future we should seek for the most appro­pri­ate incen­tive we can give to the com­pa­nies in order to accel­er­ate their per­for­mance achieve­ments and to com­ply with the (sus­tain­able forst man­age­ment) indi­ca­tors. I am con­vinced that by the time the mar­ket give their pre­mium price to pur­chase fur­ni­ture prod­ucts and crafts, this will moti­vate other com­pa­nies,” said MS. Kaban the Min­is­ter of Forestry dur­ing the sem­i­nar of “The Green Fur­ni­ture” in Jakarta, Sat­ur­day (8/3).

The sem­i­nar was held by Indone­sian Eco­la­bel­ing Insti­tute (LEI), The nature Con­ser­vancy (TNC) and Indone­sian Fur­ni­ture and Craft Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion (Asmindo), as part of the Inter­na­tional Fur­ni­ture and Craft fair Indone­sia (IFFINA) 2008 in Pekan Raya Jakarta.

Asmindo accom­mo­dates 3,000 small and micro fur­ni­ture and craft enter­prises. The indus­try has pro­vided work oppor­tu­nity for 11 mil­lion people.

Almost 60% of the fur­ni­ture and craft industry’s wood raw mate­ri­als are orig­i­nated from com­mu­nity plan­ta­tion for­est, and the rest of the mate­ri­als orig­i­nated from nat­ural for­est areas.

Main prod­uct
The Gen­eral Chair­man of Asmindo, Ambar Tjahy­ono said that Asmindo has encour­aged its mem­bers to start plant­ing for­est areas with pre­mium teak­wood seeds. This is done by col­lab­o­rat­ing with com­mu­nity mem­bers resid­ing around the for­est areas.

Fur­ni­ture and craft are one of the main 10 national prod­ucts. This can be seen in the export per­for­mance of which in 2007 is esti­mated to reach the num­ber of USD 2.7 bil­lon (IDR 24.3 tril­lions) increas­ing from USD 2.5 bil­lion (IDR 22.5 tril­lions) in 2006

We would like to proof that the Indone­sian fur­ni­ture and craft prod­ucts are orig­i­nated from envi­ron­men­tally friendly mate­ri­als,” said Ambar.

LEI Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Tau­fiq Alimi added that, Indone­sia pos­sesses 1.5 mil­lion hectares of com­mu­nity for­est areas man­aged by 3.5 mil­lion fam­i­lies. The wood pro­cess­ing indus­tries located around the com­mu­nity for­est areas can absorb a min­i­mum work­force of 1.2 mil­lion peo­ple. (ham)