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

In addition to the six companies, there are other five community forest managements and one wood industry. All of the 11 institutions has complied with LEI’s standard in setting up and develop forest management system. The forest managements maintain an area of 1.04 million ha certified forest or approximately 1.5% of the total 103 millions ha Indonesian forest areas.

“The total certified forest area is very small in size,” said Indra Setia Dewi the head of LEI’s Public Relation Division in Jakarta yesterday.

She said that the condition occurred due to the unfavorable forest management precondition in supporting the achievement of sustainable forest management performance. This can be seen in the overlapping policy occurred between sectors, departments and between central and regional.

Indra added that the government’s lack of determination in implementing the policy is the main problem of which causing an increasing conflicts and tenurial conflict in production forest concession areas.
The unfavorable condition, according to Indra, has caused difficulty for the management units to achieve the sustainable forest performance.

The Forestry Minister, M.S Kaban also admit that more than 59 million hectares out of the total 120.35 million hectares of Indonesian forest area is in a very bad condition and immediately requiring rehabilitation.
The condition is manly due to the high forest destruction rate of which reaches the size of 2.83 million hectares per year.

“The source of the problem id the illegal logging and illegal trading activities performed by community members,” said Kaban recently.

Community Conflicts
For the matter, said Indra, in order to create a conducive environment enabling the companies to achieve the sustainable forest management practices, especially at management unit level, LEI develops the phased certification system.

The certificate is granted after LEI evaluates the aspects of production, border management, community conflict resolution and also the environmental aspects the company has conducted to maintain the ecosystem both from the up and downstream sides.

Indra added that the assessment is also conducted to see whether the forest management company has provided both social and economy benefits for community members live around the forest areas. The benefits can be in the form of providing job opportunity for community members setting up public and social facilities. (erwin.tambunan@bisnis.co.id/ martin.sihombing@bisnis.co.id).