The main purpose of the Minister’s visit is to hand over the Ecolabel certificate to the Sungai Utik Community member. Sungai Utik community members have succeeded in managing their forest area sustainable and free of illegal logging activities. In Kapuas Hulu, only Sungai Utik traditional forest area that no illegal logging activities are performed. The forest area is well preserved and no Malaysian investors have succeeded in exploiting it as they did to other area a few years a go. It took 20 minutes for the Minister’s helicopter to find a good landing zone.

“During that 20 minutes I was just thinking that this would be the second time I failed to visist the Rumah Panjai (long house) in Sungai Utik. But through my prayer and strong will to meet the community members here, my helicopter finally managed to land,” said the Minister when conveying his remarks. The audience applauded his remarks.

The Minister’s contingents is welcome by the Vice Bupati , Drs. Y Alexander, Msi, Sungai Utik traditional leaders, Head of Police Chief, Head and staff of Embaloh Hulu regency. A traditional Dayak Iban welcome dance accompanies the contingent on the journey to the Rumah Panjai (long house). “I have met with the traditional leaders of Sungai Utik Rmah Panjai , and based on the discussion we had I was determined to visit this area and directly meet the community members of this village. What I want to see is that this area can be more advanced compared to other area as the community members have managed to preserve their forest area,” praised the Minister.

According to the Minister, the ecolabel certificate granted to the community is the first ecolabel certificate LEI ever given to traditional community group in Indonesia. “We surely hope that this can be a historical moment for sustainable forest management system of which directly performed by traditional community group in Indonesia,” he said.

Kaban explained that, sustainable forest is forest in which river flood during the rainy season, never dry during the draught and the water stays clean. Community members rside in the area have access fish, rattan and enggang. Birds can be found on the top of tall trees and fly around the area. “If you can see and hear animals in the forest, then it can be said that the forest is well preserved,” said Kaban.

Kaban added that the government must put its effort to provide guarantee and protection for the traditional forest management system. “While keeping up with the recent development, it is often the case that we neglect the wisdom of the local traditional value. This is important because we have to pass the value on to the next generation,” he explained.

Kaban added that due to the well preserved forest area, the community reside area should be better, developed, smarter and updated to the recent situation.
“The government, in this case the Forestry Department, will clearly state that forest areas such as Sungai Utik area are protected by the law’, Kaban assured.

For the government, forest management must be guaranteed. Forest can not be possed and solely be exploited. We should not do the same mistake in managing the forest as we did in the past.
Kaban explained that in the near future, the government through the Forestry Department will issue the Forestry Minister Regulation through this regulation the existence of traditional forest and ulayat forest possessed by the community of which border area is clearly defined and communally maintained can be protected by law. “The state has the responsibility to protect everything covered in Indonesia area,” said Kaban.

Meanwhile, the vice Bupati, Y Alexander,Msi, said that the community of Kapuas Hulu, especially the Rumah Panaji community members honor the Ministry’s visit. There has been no Minister ever visist Kapuas area. “We hope that this visit can encourage us to improve our efforts in managing the forest area and keep it preserved,” he said.

The Vice Bupati explained that he will follow up it up by synchronizing the Forestry Office and District government programs in forest preservation efforts.
“We will coordinate with Forestry Department, especially for the matter of forest preservation offort budgeting,” he explained briefly. (wieK)

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The surveillance audit, performed by a certification body to a company possessing SPFM certification, is aimed at evaluate the management unit’s performance to determine whether the unit is still eligible for the certificate. The surveillance audit is performed at least for times during the valid period (5 years) of the certificate.

Taufiq Alimi, the executive Director of LEI, on Monday (6/8) said that Riaupulp is the only plantation forest company possessing LEI certificate. The certificate was granted on May 2006. Each year, an LEI assigned certification body perform a surveillance audit to assess whether the a company is still eligible for the certificate. For the case of Riaupulp, PT. Mutuagung Lestari granted the certificate as stated in the decision letter No. 673.3/MUTU/VI/07.

The result of the audit indicated that Riaupulp is committed to implement a sustainable management forest. We carefully evaluate them from the aspects of production, social and environment. This company has passed the surveillance audit for the first year,” said Taufiq Alimi, the Executive Director of LEI.
The certification is granted for the Riaupulp 159.500 hectare concession area as stated in the Forestry Minister SK no. No 173/Kpts-II/1997. Riaupplp retains the certificate as it proofed to be capable of complying with LEI standards in managing industrial plantation forest area based on the social aspects including relationship management with community members, labor solution, the corporate’s environment and production issues.

Taufiq added that in accordance to the government’s regulation, at the moment we need natural resources companies that performs sustainable forest management practices, possesses added marketing value, and at the same time can be role models of the appropriate natural resources-based businesses.

“Riaupulp must improve its way of managing the forest in sustainable and fair way. This is very important so that the business will provide no harm to the community members residing around the forest area,” he said.
Meanwhile the General Director of Riaupulp, Rudi Fajar accompanied by Riaupulp Coordinator, Salomo Sitohang, stated that the success achieved is an evidence of the company’s commitment to run a responsible and environmentally friendly forest industry. “The certificate assures that Riaupulp products are originated from forest plantation area of which managed by combining the social and environmental aspects in a sustainable way,” said Rudi.

“For forest management unit both in Indonesia and oversea, ecolabel certificate is a necessity,” said Dr. Agus Setyarso, a member of LEI academic constituent and the Chairman of Wood Legality Verification Standard Commission Work Team in Samarinda, Kalimantan Timur, Wednesday.

Agus stated the above fact in responding to a question asked by Muklis, a representative from Forest Concessionaries Company, during the Seminar and Public Consultation with the theme of: “Wood Legality Standard: Providing Guarantee for Indonesian Wood Products Legality” held by LEI in collaboration with Center for Social Forestry (CSF) of Mulawarman University.

LEI is a constituent based organization which mission is to create a fair and sustainable forest management practices in Indonesia.
Aimed at creating fair forest management practices, LEI’s certification system provides guarantee in preserving the forest’s social and ecological functions.

During the discussion, Muklis asked whether the certification process, which requires a long process, is due to international pressure particularly from western countries. Western countries are at the moment requiring that all supplier countries, including Indonesia, use woods originated from legal forest areas and generated in a sustainable way.

As a representation from the business sector, Muklis would like to know what benefit will the business sector obtained by participating in the ecolabel scheme. “Will there be guarantees that we will get better wood price once we join the scheme?” he asked.

Agus Setyarso, who is also a lecturer of Forestry Faculty in Post Graduate Department, Gadjah mada University, explained that the business sector, both run by forest concessionaries and community members, can get a premium price.

Compared to the non-certified woods, there is a 30% price increase for the certified woods. The 30% increase is the premium price,” Agus said.

Agus explained that the main purpose of the certification scheme is to regulate the wood traffic in the country, and the regulation’s instrument is through the wood legality verification.
Through the Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) program implemented in the community managed forest area in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta and Klaten, Central Java, the community members can manage to meet the foreign market demand. They have managed to export two containers (approximately 100 meter cubic) of woods and obtained an income of IDR 350 millions per village.

LEI Communication Manager, Indra Setia Dewi, stated that similar community based forest management system is at the moment being implemented in Kapuas Hulu District, Kalimantan Barat in where the Kampung Sungai Utik ethnic community resides.

She further explained that there is a tremendous political and economy pressure in the area where the ethnic community resides. The community lives in the production forest area in the border of Kalimantan barat province and Malayaisa’s Serawak. The local government there has the plan to establish a massive palm oil plantation in the area with a total size of one million hectares.

The Kampung Sungai utik community members have managed to preserve the 9.452,5 ha forest area for generations. Though traditionally managed the result gained from the forest is almost the same as the result gained from the concession area. Most woods produced from the community managed forest area are woods of highly commercial types such as Meranti, Ramin, Kempas etc.
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The certification process refers to a system consists of standard, procedure, minimum requirements and a manual of certification decision making. In other words, a complete certification system must comprehensively include:
(1) a set of criteria and indicators that can be referred in the assessment process of a management unit.
(2) certification process procedure
(3) minimum requirements for the implementer and
(4) An accountable academic model for certification decision making

The Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI) exists in Indonesia as a non-profit organization. LEI runs its function as an accreditation institute, certification system developer and it also prepares all infrastructures required for the certification implementation. Initially the initiative derived from several individuals of various backgrounds such as academics, government, non-profit organization and business sector and chaired by Prof. Emil Salim. In 1998 LEI the group became an institution. A Certification Verification Board (DPS) was formed to maintain LEI’s credibility. The board consists of credible and independent individuals. The board’s function is to conduct verification on objections conveyed by the public with regards to a certification decision.

In addition to the board, a Local Communication Forum (FKD) was also established. FKD is a multi party forum at local level of which role is not limited to the certification process but can be further developed to a representative media to discuss natural resources issues at local level. Why should we develop a certification system for community based forest? This is because the forest based community initiative is an opportunity to extend the community forest manager’s access to a more valuable international market.
A certification of a community based forest management can provide an enormous boost for a recognition process and information dissemination of a certain management unit not withstanding the fact that the unit is marginalized by the central government. Information dissemination generated by the certification can draw the attention of other institutions both at national and international levels to in-depth examine other relevant aspects. The point is, certification can reach broader public scope both at national and international level and not limited to eco-sensitive consumers.

At the moment, the total certified community based forest area is reaching the size of 2 (two) millions hectares worldwide. Nevertheless, in general the community based forst management units are still concentrated on wood products. The organization of the management unit is also varies in forms. It ranges from a very simple management unit operating a total area size of 286 ha in Costa Rica to a massive industri like Menominee Tribal Enterprise in USA. In Indonesian context LEI has developed the Sustainable Community Based Forest Management (SCBFM) system. The system is established based on a spirit to boost the recognition of CBFM in Indonesia. However, the unique and diverse characteristics of CBFM calls for a development of a certification system capable of adopting the above uniqueness and diversity.

The approach developed in SCBFM system is different from the approach in the Sustainable Production Natural Forest Management (SPNFM) and Sustainable Plantation Forest Management (SPFM). There are more than few parties that are reluctant to implement the initiative due to the unfavorable condition to implement Community Based Forest Management certification in Indonesia. For instance, there has not been a single understanding of CBFM concept amongst various parties in Indonesia and also the government’s reluctance in implementing CBFM as the future forest management system. Despite the continuous debate on CBFM certification, a starting point of this system must be immediately established. Sooner or later a certification system will be imposed to all forest area in Indonesia.

What kind of SCBFM LEI has developed? The first to do is to identify the forms of CBFM in Indonesia. This process is approached in 4 (four) variables: forest/area allocation, objective of management, type of products generated and land ownership.

Area allocations include: Forest Cultivation Area, Non-forest Cultivation Area, and Protected Area. The Objectives of the management are: to be subsistent and commercial. The land ownership includes: state land, traditional adat ( individual/ communal) land and fully owned land. From the crossed of the four variables, and their sub-variables, 48 CBFM types were found (see table 1). Due to the limited information and technology the certification assessment has yet to cover non-wood products, therefore the system is only suitable for wood-products. Thus, there are 24 types of CBFM for forest products (see table 2)
A categorization system is implemented to determine the most appropriate certification system for the respective managements. The first category is CBFM located in the protected area excluded from the SCBFM certification. The second category is commercial CBFM located in the forest cultivation area with fully owned land status and land with formal ownership (certified) located at the forest cultivation area. Thus, in SCBFM certification for forest resource there are 2 models of assessments being developed based on the existing CBFM categories, namely:
1. Assessment performed by Certification Institute, but employing different standard based on the CBFM’s public function possessed by a management unit.
2. Certification conducted by a credible independent institution such as NGO, research institute, or other competent institution. The independent institution– with a written consent from the forest management community – will subsequently provide an effective report on the proposed CBFM unit’s performance. The report will then be verified by a panel of expert assigned by a certification institute. Nevertheless, this type of verification is only suitable for CBFM unit which has been proven capable of performing good forest preservation effort. The performance of the unit must be proven scientifically and tested through time. Although there are differences of parties applying for certification, based on model I and II of the certification, the main principle here is voluntary-based. The voluntary based principle must be implemented for both parties applying for certification and parties providing the certification. Even if the party applying for certification is comes from a third party origin, the voluntary based principle must still be applied. The difference in the certification model has an implication on the validity period of the certification (a time period imposed for certification validity for a certain unit/community group declared “passed” the assessment) by taking into account the factors of certification costs and the silviculture of which include the type of tree species and logging system. Can the ecolabel certification be implemented to community based forest? The answer lies on the parties involved in the community based forest management practice in Indonesia.

This is due to the fact that the SCBFM certification implementation is not aimed at developing the certification system only. The important aspect that must be taken into account is the preparation of other important elements, such as institutional preparation and performance improvement of the forest management community, international market network and certification cost. In addition to that, it also takes time to disseminate information on SCBFM certification system, preparing the field assessor, panel of expert and a credible certification institution. Since May 2002 LEI has been working on a Pilot Project for the SCBFM certification. In the Pilot Project, LEI works together with . KpSHK, AMAN, WWF, SHK Kaltim, ARuPA and Persepsi. The Pilot Project is expected to capable of providing the answer to the question raised in this article.