Indonesia Calls For A Wider Recognition Of Lestari Forest Management System

Illustration of tropical forests. (Between)

JAKARTA - Indonesia calls for a wider recognition of the national sustainable forest management system owned by countries that are members of theBraider Market Recognition Coalition (BMRC). According to a written statement from the COP28 Indonesian Pavilion received in Jakarta, Saturday, the countries that are members of the BMRC are calling for the global market to recognize the national sustainable forest management system as an effort to encourage sustainable timber trading. Agus Justianto was quoted as saying by Antara.

He said this in the discussion of Braider Market Recognition Coalition: Providing Incentives to Good Tropical Forest Governance" (Incentivizing Good Tropical Forest Governance) at the Indonesian Pavilion at the COP28 UNFCCC Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday (8/12). "BMRC is a platform to encourage timber trading and sustainable forest products," continued Agus.

Director of Processing and Marketing of KLHK Forest Products as well as Chairman of the BMRC Secretariat Krisdianto Sugiyanto said that the BMRC initiative began during the UNFCCC COP26 dialogue in Glasgow, England.

The BMRC was officially formed in 2022 where six producing countries, Indonesia, Ghana, Liberia, Cameroon, and the Republic of Congo agreed to collaborate, explained Krisdianto.

Krisdianto continued, each producing country has developed an accountable and transparent national sustainable forest management system and their achievements must gain wider recognition from the global market.

For example, Indonesia already has a Legality and Sustainability Verification System (SVLK). SVLK has an impact on reducing Indonesia's deforestation rate by 75 percent to only about 100,000 hectares per year, the lowest in history since the 1990s.

"Indonesia and producing countries that have developed an accountable and transparent sustainable forest management system deserve market incentives," he said.

On the same occasion, Director of the Ghana Forestry Commission Chris Beeko said that the Ghana-built forest management system has now received FLEGT-VPA recognition from the European Union, following what Indonesia has achieved.

"We built it through a long process involving many parties, there must be incentives for what has been done," he said.

BMRC is a platform to support, monitor and promote the implementation of a national sustainable forestry system, and to label and promote the trade in forest products originating from the BMRC-backed national system.

BMRC also encourages harmonization of legal and sustainable forest product standards in trade regulations and procurement of the public and private sectors that provide recognition of products labeled BMRC internationally.