The 2nd AFP meeting in Yogyakarta
Adopted 20 November 2003
Report of the second meeting of AFP in Yogyakarta. 9-10 July 2003 by Government of Indonesia. Bambang Murdiono. Director Bureau for International Cooperation and Investment, Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia, with additional comments by Dr. Hugh Speechly, Coordinator Forest law Enforcement and Governance Programme, (DIFD).
BACKGROUND
The Asia Forest Partnership (AFP) - a multi-stakeholder Partnership for Sustainable Development formed to address issues of sustainable forest management in the Asian region - held its second meeting in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 9 - 10 July 2003.
A total of 125 delegates and observers representing governments of 10 countries, 7 international agencies and 26 non-government organisations and companies participated.
Three possible alternatives for continuation of the AFP, namely: (i) Category I - Low-key information sharing and dialogue; (ii) Category II - Active, action-oriented information exchange; (iii) Category III - Joint action with commitment of resources, supported by information exchange.
AFP should continue to involve a wide range of stakeholders, especially civil society. It was also agreed that it should be action-oriented with a clear idea of direction, and it should add value to existing initiatives. However, focus should be on a limited set of activities. It was important to make a start and the meeting must decide where and how.
The following key points were made: (i) All partners equally accountable, but with different views interests and resources; (ii) Funding should be sought from all sources; (iii) Sub-groups could be formed based on geographic or topic-related interests.
Forest and Timber Certification as a means to verify legality.
Discussions from the floor following the presentations emphasised the need to build on initiatives with real actions to curtail illegal logging. Other issues focussed on the need to differentiate between forest certification and legality certification - not all certification systems checked legality and problem with assuming legality based on official documents alone when there was strong evidence that stolen timber often carried the necessary documentation.
AFP could act to co-ordinate such activities and reconcile differences.
PRESENTATIONS ON MAIN TOPICS
Forest Fires and transboundary haze pollution
Discussion emphasised on the need for training and education - both of forestry personnel and local communities - are important and approaches to rehabilitating burnt over areas are being developed.
There is also a need to improve capacity in all types of organisation, both by training and the provision of appropriate equipment. Key lessons were: enforce zero burning policies for large estate companies; involve local communities in fire control; use extension and socialisation to get messages across; and involve fire prevention in all agricultural and forest practices.
PRESENTATIONS ON MAIN TOPICS
Reforestation and degraded land Rehabilitation
Priorities must include: broadening the range of goods and services provided; development of appropriate silvicultural systems for small farms; recognition of indirect services; making cheaper finance available; adopting best technology; improved communications and market information; and developing and implementing better policies for preventing degradation and supporting rehabilitation.
Subsequent discussions from the floor covered all three agenda topics ranging from incentives for certified wood, the need for importing countries to pass laws banning imports of illegal timber, choice of burning for land clearing by poor people because it is cheapest, how NFP takes decentralisation into account, and approaches to combining oil palm with timber trees to rehabilitate degraded land.
PLENNARY SESSION ON WORKING GROUP PRESENTATIONS
WG I: Forest and timber certification as a means to verify legality
Possible themes to be considered covered a phased approach to certification, involving legality and sustainability; improving capacity to implement systems; clear consistent information from consumers on minimum requirements in their markets; and adoption of market driven/incentive based approaches.
PLENNARY SESSION ON WORKING GROUP PRESENTATIONS
WG II: Forest fires and trans-boundary haze pollution
AFP should focus on specific activities:
Development of a common understanding about forest fire management covering the following principles:
component/information: prevention, monitoring, mitigation/suppression/fire fighting, restoration/post fire management
stakeholders are involved and benefit from fire management to develop a kind of partnership (multilateral and/or bilateral)
using existing information, technologies, including results from research and development, etc.
PLENNARY SESSION ON WORKING GROUP PRESENTATIONS
WG III: Reforestation and degraded land rehabilitation
It was agreed to start with "Category 2" (active, action-oriented information exchange) and then move to "Category 3" (joint action with commitment of resources, supported by information exchange).
This will focus on low-key information sharing with the addition of identification of high-priority issues that merit targeted monitoring, assessment, research and potentially coordinated or joint action by some or all AFP partners.
Identified key issues for reforestation/rehabilitation include: policy, economics/ investment of rehabilitation, technology transfer, community involvement, institutions/capacity building
FINAL DISCUSSIONS
The final session focussed on ways to take AFP forward
To move forward some concrete commitments by all partners were needed, but it was still unclear how activities can be transformed into work plan.
All partners need to continue their active support and participation, and to try to expand the partnership to a broader international community.
The activities should move from discussions to addressing concrete actions and although initial steps may be very small due to limited resources, time and manpower available for each partner, the initiatives would yield steady progress, and eventually lead to more significant movements.
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