INDONESIA CONVEYS THE DEVELOPMENT OF HARMONIZATION OF WOOD-BASED STANDARDS at the 26th ASEAN WORKING GROUP on FOREST PRODUCTS | 15/06/2023
Cambodia. Tuesday, 13 June 2023. In support to sustainable forest management in forest products, Indonesia conveys the latest developments in forest product standards and the implementation of certification in the forestry sector (Forest Certification) in The Twenty Sixth Meeting of The ASEAN Working Group on Forest Products Development (26th AWG-FPD) in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 12-13 June 2023.
AWG-FPD is an annual meeting to discuss policies, programs and issues of forest product management in the ASEAN region which includes herbs and medicinal plants, harmonization of standards, trade promotion and marketing of forest product products, FLEG and forest product cooperation.
As Indonesia Head of Delegates, the Director of The Center for Standardization of Sustainable Forest Management Instruments (PuSTARhut), Dr. Wening Sri Wulandari, accompanied by delegate member from the Directorate of Development of Forest Product Processing and Marketing (BPPHH), Foreign Cooperation Bureau (Biro KLN), and Pustarhut.
Wening conveyed that Indonesia has implemented the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade - Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) with the European Union since 2013 and the UK since 2019. "Currently, FLEGT-VPAs with the UK are in the ratification process," Wening continued.
Another important information conveyed in this activity was the development of the ASEAN Regional Knowledge Network on Forest Products Development (ARKN-FPD), where Indonesia is the lead country. Active participation of ASEAN Member States (AMS) is necessary for web development that is beneficial for all AMS in transferring information, knowledge for reference, development of national standards through adopation or modification of harmonized standards. In addition, ARKN as a potential synergy between AMS. "As of June 12, 2023, more than 226,000 users have visited the ARKN-FPD website," Wening continued.
Indonesia expects active participation from AMS to support the development of the ARKN-FPD web, so that the exchange of information and knowledge between AMS countries can run optimally, and can be disseminated more widely.
In a discussion about Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) Implementation, Secunda Selamat Santoso from the Directorate of BPPHH conveyed developments that Indonesia is in the process of harmonizing the conversion of HS code from WCO 2017 to WCO 2022, this process involves many stakeholders, namely the Ministry of Trade, Customs and civil society.
"Currently Indonesia is working on SVLK guidelines for NTFP", Secunda added.
Meanwhile, in the development of forest standardization, Aryani from the Division of Formulation and Conformity Assessment of Instrument Standards delivered 68 harmonized ISO standards. On the occasion, Aryani conveyed the update of national standard harmonization data that has been implemented by Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. She stated, Indonesia has 45 SNI from the adoption of ISO Standards and 1 SNI modified by ISO Standards, the Philippines has adopted 61 forest product standards and Vietnam has adopted 43 forest product standards. In addition, it was also conveyed the proposal to harmonize 19 forest product standards that need to get a response from ASEAN Member States. On this occasion, Indonesia also actively participated in the exchange of information related to the development of harmonization of ISO and IEC standards, strengthening networks, management of medicinal plants and herbs, development of forest products, and potential collaboration.
The 26th AWG-FPD meeting was attended by delegates from 9 AMS, ASEAN Secretariat and EU FLEGT Asia Program representatives at the open session. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Chan Ponika, from Cambodia, as the organizer of the 26th AWG-FPD in 2023 and Aryani as Vice Chair. The 27th AWG-FPD in 2024 will be hosted by Indonesia. (***)
Person-in-charge of news :
Dr. Wening Sri Wulandari – Director of The Center for Standardization of Sustainable Forest Management Instruments (PuSTARhut)
Contributor:
Aryani, S.Hut., M.Si – Head of the Division of Formulation and Conformity Assessment of Instrument Standards