Tropical Forest Foundation -- Reduced Impact Logging (South America (Asia))


About - History - Leadership - Board of Directors RIL - TFF Standard for Reduced Impact Logging - Cost/Benefits Study - South America - Asia - Africa Mahogany Contributors - Corporate Sponsors - Partners Support TFF - Contributor's App. TFF Newsletters TFF Species Bulletins Press Releases/News/ Documents of Interest CITES Tomorrow's Forests Industry Can Help Consider This Links Contact A high priority for TFF is to encourage the major international timber companies to support and incorporate TFF Sustainable Forest Management/ Reduced-impact Logging principles and practices.		TFF Initiates Public/Private Partnership in Indonesia Looking to protect some of the world's richest tropical forests and assure customers about the source of their wood products, the Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) launched a program in Indonesia that fosters sustainable forest management and implements a tracking system to ensure legally harvested timber. Indonesia, along with other Southeast Asian wood product producers, has a reputation for illegal and unsustainable logging practices. This perception threatens the Indonesian forest industry from gaining access to important export markets such as Europe and North America. Major European and North American buyers are under pressure from environmental lobbyists to commit to a "certified product only" purchasing policy or face the possibility of boycott action and demonstrations at their retail outlets. The reality however, is that certified wood products from tropical producers such as Indonesia, are not available in quantities required by the market. In the face of mounting boycott pressure, TFF actively lobbied the North American distributors of Indonesian wood. By mid 2002, Home Depot, the largest buyer and distributor of Indonesian plywood, agreed to support TFF in its ambition to provide fundamental assurances about the origin of the wood products and the quality of the forest management units (FMUs). In January of 2003, TFF signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesian timber conglomerate, Alas Kusuma. TFF immediately began to assess the timber site to determine necessary management practices and trained employees of PT Suka Jaya Makmur (SJM), a member of the Alas Kusuma Group. Led by Regional Director Art Klassen, TFF evaluated existing logging standards and the status of Reduced-Impact Logging (RIL) adoption. TFF also worked with SJM to identify and implement improvements and evaluated existing log marking, identification, and tracking arrangements. In addition, TFF, with the help of other public and private partners, initiated an independent auditing system that tracks the timber between the forest concessions and the industrial complex to ensure that it has been legally harvested and that no undocumented wood has been interspersed. The first shipment of hardwood plywood from the project was made in May, 2003. Wood products from this program bear TFF RIL shipping labels that verify that: All wood in the various products comes from well-managed forests Harvesting operations employed best practices and RIL techniques Logs were tracked from the harvest site to the mill through the manufacturing process, and to the shipping point, and onto the U.S. market Harvesting was conducted in full compliance with existing laws and regulations of national, regional, and local governments This public/private partnership is funded by the USAID Asia and the Near East Bureau's Public-Private Alliance, the U.S. Forest Service's International Programs, and the Home Depot with additional support from the Alas Kusuma Group, Caterpillar, Inc., and Plywood Tropics USA, Inc. For further information please contact Keister Evans, Executive Director at tff@igc.org. or visit http://www.tff-indonesia.org