Loggers, large logging companies who are not contributing to deforestation in Indonesia. The reason: the Decree of the Minister of Trade No. 25 of 2016, which stipulates that all timber must meet the standards of timber legality assurance system (TLAS) or Indonesian Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu (SVLK). And the decree is followed.
Before a tree can be cut and the newspaper moved out of the concession area and the market, a number of strict conditions must be met. The most demanding of these is the logging plan. This plan must be submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests before login can begin. It contains a map ( Peta Sebaran Pohon ) blocks to be recorded during a certain year, showing the location of trees to be felled, encoded with their lat-long coordinates.
Trees to be conserved are mapped in the same way. Their identification is done in cooperation with the communities of forest dwellers and villages bordering the forest. These communities act as guides, indicating which areas are of particular social or cultural value, such as burial sites or places of ancestors dwelling. The trees of economic value, for example, where the resin is removed, or honey harvested from wild bee hives, also enter the list to be preserved.
The logging plan is actually a geographic information system (GIS) and the sustainability of control. When a tree is felled, it is recorded in the GIS and the log is marked with the appropriate code. Entering this code in the GIS will reveal the date tree was killed and its origin. Using the same code is not possible again.
The computer program makes use of high-resolution maps - scale 1: 1000 - which have been agreed by stakeholders. This is of great importance because incorrect or disputed geospatial data would probably contain some overlap, which makes it null and void system. Room for cheating is all but non-existent as both suppliers and consumers of newspapers are reluctant to use the newspapers that lack certification.
Logging map
It is said, however, that on a limited scale, operation illegal logging is always performed, but only to small regional markets.
The success of the certification system is probably the main reason why 21 April President Joko Widodo; the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker; and the President of the European Union, Donald Tusk; issued a joint statement that the EU and Indonesia have agreed to implement the law Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) licensing scheme to reduce illegal logging and promote legal timber trade . This authorization scheme was preceded by the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), which was signed by the same parties in 2013 and ratified in 2014. A FLEGT license is issued upon compliance with the conditions / SVLK of Tlass.
Although the European market takes less than 10 percent of timber exports from Indonesia, TLAS, FLEGT VPA and have indeed contributed to the gradual implementation of sustainable forest management practices, and therefore a reduction of illegal logging. Unfortunately this is only a first step.
There is much to do on the long road to end deforestation and degradation of forest resources and land.
Large tracts of forests are slashed and burned as an easy and cheap way to open land for oil palm and mining properties. Mitigate the effects of these activities will not be easy. It will 1) a clear strategy accepted by all stakeholders; 2) effective monitoring; and 3) the strict application of the law by the government.
The outline of the strategy is known. But the implementation is hampered by the complexity of issues and the large number of stakeholders with ideas and very different objectives and often irreconcilable. How, for example, can the needs of the forest dwelling communities to natural forest sustainably managed to fit the requirements of a palm oil estate of tens of thousands of hectares clearcut? Legal and illegal land clearing for agricultural purposes is a major cause of deforestation. The two major areas and small farmers are the main perpetrators and the favored crop is oil palm.
In addition to the loss of biodiversity and habitat of protected species such as elephants, tigers and orangutans, the worst damage done to the environment by results of oil palm plantations bar-and-burn land clearing method used to prepare the ground for planting. Each year hundreds of thousands of hectares go up in smoke and the negative effects are not only felt in the respective provinces, but also in Singapore and Malaysia. It seems that incompetence or unwillingness of property managers is to blame for this. The yields of palm oil estates and smallholders in Indonesia could be doubled from 30 to 60 tonnes per hectare if better agronomic practices were applied.
Increases production could be reached without burning and more forestland compensation.
As in the case of timber certification, initiation of sustainable production methods also make changes in the oil palm sector, albeit slowly. The will to strengthen the sustainability of the production was launched within the industry. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established in 2004 in Malaysia. The organization evolved from the first 47 members, largely from industry itself, to 1,346 voting members, including 33 groups of environmental and social activists and 612 manufacturers of consumer goods. RSPO is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and the producers and Indonesian groups are among its members.
In the 12 years since its establishment, has launched RSPO certification of behavior environmentally, several major manufacturers of food and candy in the US and Europe now require their palm oil suppliers. More will surely follow, as pressure mounts on the buyers to check whether their suppliers comply with the standards and certification systems for sustainable production internationally recognized.
Mining companies also need large tracts of land. Like most mines in Indonesia involves the mining surface mining, the environmental consequences are usually horrible, as the first overburden must be removed, and all the vegetation. And although the contract stipulates that it must be implemented when operations end, the reality is harder. Second, the tailings disposal is a difficult and expensive process, often causes environmental accidents resulting from toxic discharge into the surroundings.
Whether the mining sector will eventually adhere to the rules and regulations of environmental sustainability remains to be seen. The environmental management plans describe and specify the various measures to protect the environment, but unfortunately examples of [accidental] environmental disasters, such as the dumping of toxic materials into the environment, are still far too common . Total elimination of mining disasters necessitate the closure of mines, which is not really a viable solution.