Forest Certification in Developing and Transitioning ... - UTas ePrints

forest certification in indonesia
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complied with specified national and management unit level criteria and indicators
as set out in an independent and credible certification system (Elliot 2000).
It is important to note that Pokja LEI made use of international sustainable forest
principles and that a review was carried out to improve the implementation of environmental
impact assessment (EIA), a weakness of forest management in Indonesia
at this time (Kartodihardjo 2003).
This was a critical period for LEI in terms of its ability to establish a credible certification
system. The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of
Environment relied on LEI to further develop certification for both forest and nonforest
products. Heated discussions eventually led to consensus among the interest
groups, mainly NGOs (who wanted the social and ecological aspects to be taken more
seriously) and APHI (who had developed their own certification system).
Harmonization of diverging views took place, resulting in the certification system
that is now being implemented. The establishment of the working group prevented
APHI’s criteria and indicators from being imposed on the country as a national standard
and subsequently the APHI initiative evolved into an internal auditing system to
help concessionaires prepare for certification (Elliot 2000).
A consensus emerged between the LEI Working Group and APHI to harmonize
the certification standard at this time, even though the former contained stronger
social and environmental provisions. By the end of 1996, the main elements of the LEI
forest certification programme were in place and in April the draft standard was
submitted to the Indonesian National Standards Body for approval. In April 1997 a
workshop was held between the Ministry of Forestry, APHI and LEI at which the
three institutions agreed that LEI’s criteria and indicators were acceptable and this
agreement can be seen as a key stage in the programme development phase (Elliot
2000).
Field tests and system improvement were conducted intensively during this period
and an effort was made to build up certification and assessment expertise. Given
LEI’s multifarious role, it organized several training sessions for assessors, established
expert panels, and put in place the infrastructure for accreditation. Pokja LEI was
officially established as a foundation in February 1998 as Yayasan Lembaga Ekolabel
Indonesia (LEI) and in June of that year, LEI’s criteria and indicators for natural forest
management were adopted as the Indonesia National Standard.
yale school of forestry & environmental studies