Indonesia’s trade minister, Gita Wirjawan, will travel to Europe to press the case for more timber trade with all member states of the European Union with the support of Indonesia’s forestry sector.
Europe accounts for 15 per cent of Indonesia’s timber product exports, a figure that the country would like to grow. In order to achieve growth exporters understand that European businesses and consumers need cast-iron assurances that their wood products do not come at the expense of the environment.
Deforestation is not acceptable and Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made a commitment to protecting Indonesia’s rainforests and reducing the country’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 26 per cent over the rest of this decade.
An introduction of a new certification system for Indonesia’s timber sector, called ‘SVLK’, is a program established by the government that all companies working with wood-based products are obliged to comply.
SVLK comes into force next year and Indonesia’s forest industry hopes that it will provide assurances to European and other customers that Indonesia’s wood products are produced in a legal and sustainable manner.
The major trade associations representing the forestry sector in Indonesia gathered recently in Jakarta to work out the practical steps required to achieve world-class timber production and trade standards through SVLK.
When the EU timber regulation comes into force in March 2013, it will require all European importers of timber to have completed a high level of due diligence on the wood products they buy.
Pakistan Forests Institute study on climate change
To offset the effects of climatic change and global warming in the country, the Pakistan Forests Institute (PFI) has completed a comprehensive study to determine the climatic change scenarios in Pakistan’s various ecological zones and its impact on forest resources. Source: Dawn.com
The results of the study will help design adaptation and mitigation measures in forestry sector to counter-balance the effects of global warming and climatic change.
A mapping exercise has been undertaken to monitor forest cover in all districts of the country with the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing Technology (RST).
It is anticipated that this will provide valuable and authentic information regarding the precise extent of national forest cover and land use patterns and changes over time.
