Opening Remarks
3rd Asian Forest Partnership

Byron Sigel, Director
The Nature Conservancy, Japan
November 21, 2003

Ambassador Mine, Director General Koes Saparjadi, Director Takagi, delegates, ladies and gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to represent The Nature Conservancy at this 3rd meeting of the Asia Forest Partnership. The AFP, announced at the WSSD meeting in Johannesburg by Japan, Indonesia, CIFOR and TNC, is a collaborative partnership among governments, international organizations, and NGOs dedicated to identifying and addressing some of the most immediate threats to the forests in Asia.

The Nature Conservancy is committed to working with our partners to develop effective methodologies and programs to combat illegal logging and thus to protect the rapidly diminishing forest resources and biodiversity of Indonesia and throughout Asia.

I would like to echo the remarks of my colleagues of the importance of this meeting as we move towards a program of a concrete action.

• TNC is making good progress in establishing a system in Indonesia for differentiating legal timber from illegal. We have developed an auditable definition of legality and the tools to track verified legal wood from the stump to the consumer. (More information available from TNC in Indonesia.) This effort is a good example of how a partnership between NGOs, business, local government, and national governments along the supply chain can make a positive difference. We would hope that in the future, additional Indonesian companies will become involved in this effort. I would note that similar work is also being developed by IKEA and WWF in China and Russia to address wood procurement for IKEA in Chinese furniture factories. (Hand out brochures and copies of the business week article if you can).
• I would note the tragic floods in Sumatra a few weeks ago, which killed almost 300 people, far more than were killed in the terrorist bombing in Bali. Although the causes are not yet clear (and may never be), it seems likely that poor forest management, and possibly illegal logging or illegal or poorly planned forest clearing was involved. However, the scale of the response to the tragedy is minimal compared to the international flood of action following the Bali bomb. Why is this? Surely the loss of life and damage property is in fact more serious, and like the terror, more terrible disasters from flooding are sure to be seen again soon. A far greater response is needed to help address the land use planning and law enforcement issues.
• I would like to note the dispute that recently occurred in public between Indonesia and Malaysia regarding a shipment of timber of questionable legality. Indonesia has urged European importers to stop doing business with Malaysia because much of their wood is coming illegally from Indonesia. Meanwhile other countries in the region linked to this triangular trade of illegal timber from Indonesia remain very quiet, I would like to suggest that perhaps, the AFP might serve a good forum for some friendly and frank discussion of these issues, rather than fighting in the media. AFP could perhaps assist in convening a practical dialogue on how to address such issues.
• TNC looks forward to continuing to exchange information and experience with AFP members. We look forward to a productive discussion at today's meeting.