Harper Hotel-Yogyakarta (30/09/2020). Coinciding with the signing date of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT-VPA) between Indonesia and the European Union, namely on September 30, 2013, ago in Brussels, Belgium, today ARuPA together with FAO-EU FLEGT held the “Final Presentation Program to Increase Legal and Sustainable Community Timber Trade in Indonesia ”. This event is a summit activity for the ARuPA collaboration with FAO-EU FLEGT which has been running for the last 15 months.

For a moment, we should be proud as a nation of Indonesia because seven years ago it was the first country in the world that succeeded in ratifying the voluntary partnership agreement with the European Union. This effort paid off after going through long bilateral negotiations by the Indonesian government at that time. His enthusiasm is to remove the stigma that Indonesia is often labeled as a country producing illegal timber to turn into a country with good forest governance to eradicate illegal logging and increase the circulation of legal timber. This is as explained by Rosikhul Ilmi as the project manager. This event was attended by all levels of stakeholders involved so far from the start of the program to the end. Among them are community forest farmer groups, timber traders, primary industry, advanced industry, industry and trade services, environmental and forestry services, academics, timber legality verification institutions, and industrial associations.

Ms. Erica Pohnan as the representative of FAO in her speech expressed her appreciation to ARuPA for being successful in running the program from start to finish. He also paid tribute to ARuPA for successfully building the first legal timber trading platform online among FAO-EU FLEGT partners in other countries. Ms. Erica Pohnan also really appreciated the seriousness and hard work of the ARuPA team for having succeeded in building the online platform in just two months.

In general, there are three achievements in this cooperation program, namely increasing compliance and fulfillment of community forest management units, timber traders, primary industries, and small and medium industries to timber legality requirements, obtaining VLK certification for thirteen small and medium industries, and the realization of a timber trade information center legal people in the form of the website www.woodenasia.com. Community forest management units that have complied with the principle of timber legality are found in four districts and two provinces, namely UMHR Wono Lestari Bantul, D.I. Yogyakarta, APHR Sekar Wana Manunggal Gunungkidul, D.I. Yogyakarta, APHR Ngudi Utomo Boyolali, Central Java, and Gapoktanhut Jati Mustika Blora, Central Java. Thirteen SMEs have passed SVLK certification after undergoing an intensive mentoring process for eleven months. They are spread across three districts, namely ten SMEs in Bantul Regency, two in Sleman Regency, D.I Yogyakarta, and one in Sukoharjo Regency, Central Java.

Head of the Provincial Industry and Trade Service D.I. Yogyakarta Ir. Aris Riyanta, M.Si. In the direction he delivered, he appreciated ARuPA’s performance which always involved government elements, especially the Industry and Trade Service and the Environment and Forestry Service from the beginning to the end of the program. Indirectly, ARuPA has helped ease the government’s duties on the program that has been implemented. Ir. Aris Riyanta, M.Si. also hopes that the timber legality system will always improve its implementation in order to improve the performance of the timber industry sector, especially in the Province of D.I. Yogyakarta. He revealed that the wood industry export performance in the Province of D.I. Yogyakarta is in second place after textile product exports. This means that the timber industry sector has a strategic position in regional and national economic growth. Moreover, with the SVLK, it will open up more opportunities for the export market for the wood industry more broadly. Nationally, based on BPS data for 2019, Indonesian furniture exports have increased since the implementation of SVLK. Indonesia managed to ship USD 1.95 billion worth of furniture in 2019, up 14.6% from 2018.

Also on this occasion was the inauguration of the online platform www.woodenasia.com, which was just built on the initiation of ARuPA with FAO-EU FLEGT. This inauguration was carried out by the Executive Director of ARuPA Edi Suprapto who was accompanied by Mr. Faisol (HIMKI DIY), Mrs. Intan (Head of DIY’s Disperindag Exports), Mr. Agung (ASMINDO Komda DIY), and Mr.Tri Mulyadi (DLHK DIY). He stated that the portal as an information center for the people’s timber trade has been carried out some time ago by a soft launch which also invited all stakeholders. He hopes that this portal can be of benefit to all parties, especially community forest farmers as wood producers, primary industries and advanced industries in order to support increased legal timber trade in local and international markets.

With the achievement of three main targets in the program “Increasing Legal and Sustainable Community Timber Trade in Indonesia”, ARuPA and FAO-EU FLEGT have succeeded in assisting the Indonesian government in implementing timber legality standards in all lines from upstream to downstream. After the final presentation on the program was not necessarily the end of the campaign to increase the circulation of legal timber. However, with the online platform www.woodenasia.com, efforts to increase the circulation of legal timber will be more developed and sustainable by involving various other parties (Al)