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Indonesia sends first batch of Euro legality-licensed plywood to Europe

Xinhua, November 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Indonesia sent on Tuesday the first batch of plywood commodity that suits with European Union (EU)-initiated Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) license to several destination ports in Europe.

The initial shipment that consisted of 23 containers was organized by the Indonesia Wood Panel Association (APKINDO), shipped to European seaports of Tilbury and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, Antwerp in Belgium and Hamburg in Germany from Indonesia's seaports in Jakarta and Batang, Central Java.

Director General of Sustainable Management on Forestry Products at Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Ministry Putera Parthama said that addressing the legality of wood commodity and complying with EU's standard have been part of Indonesia's efforts to ensure sustainable development, improve the livelihoods, and tackle the climate change issue.

"From now on, all of Indonesia's timber exports are originated from audited factories and forests," Putera said here to address the initial shipment.

Indonesia is the first country certified to issue FLEGT licenses for exports of timber and wood products from November 15. The certification was obtained by Indonesia from the EU in September.

"The EU congratulates Indonesia on great progress it has made in bringing its forest sector under control and in improving forest governance," EU ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guérend said in a statement to address the shipment.

The EU also praised Indonesia's intention to apply the timber legality assurance system over its wood products exported to all markets, not just to the EU countries, the ambassador added.

Indonesia supplied one third of EU nations' tropical timber needs totaling of 882 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.

Currently 2,322 Indonesian wood and timber firms have already certified with the European legality assurance license to ship their products to countries abroad, according to data released by the Environment and Forestry Ministry. Endit