Joint Statement by Philippines and Indonesia
Regarding Strengthening of the
Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Process
Philippines and Indonesia are proud to announce coordinated efforts to strengthen the East Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) process. The Philippines, with the welcomed support of Indonesia, volunteers to Chair the Asia FLEG Task Force and host the next meeting of governments to discuss progress made on the Bali Ministerial Declaration on FLEG of September 2001.
The 2001 FLEG Ministerial, hosted and chaired by Indonesia, was a crucial event for addressing forest law enforcement and governance in the region, in particular illegal logging and associated trade including corruptions and money laundering. Philippines joined Indonesia and numerous other countries in Bali to commit to a broad range of actions at the national, bilateral, regional and multilateral levels to address violations of forest law. Since that gathering, the signatories to the Bali Declaration have devoted significant attention to the issue of addressing forest crime. Yet, more concrete actions need to be accomplished.
We welcome the statement released by the G8 Environment and Development Ministers meeting in Derby, United Kingdom which builds on previous commitments and envisages further concrete actions to close G8 markets to illegal timber and offer technical and financial assistance to timber producing countries to combat illegal logging and promote practical enforcement against such activities.
We seek G8 cooperation to promote effective new collaboration in enacting meaningful regional and international enforcement cooperation to target illegal international timber trade and the criminal syndicates behind such activities while disrupting the flows of money involved in such transactions -through designating illegal logging and timber trade as a designated offence under money laundering legislation.
We welcome the ITTO Project to examine international transport of illegal timber and invite close programmatic cooperation with the Asia FLEG Task Force nations and the G8 nations to examine ways to restrict both the marine transport of illegal timber and the insurance policies that affect marine shipment of such timber by inviting the shipping and insuring industries to cooperate with the ITTO project and Asia FLEG to develop this vital initiative to target illegal timber trade.
Based on consultations over the last several months with engaged governments, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations and industry, a clear vision has emerged for the next steps for FLEG. FLEG should focus on promoting concrete actions to combat forest crime. In addition, it should aim to maximize the benefit of a ministerial meeting in 2006 where ministers gather to announce significant achievements in strengthening forest law enforcement and governance, such as the creation of a regional enforcement mechanism and the results of significant work on the ground.
To achieve these results, the following regional process should be established and fully supported by donor countries and institutions:
§ Countries should be encouraged to commit to concrete short-term actions to strengthen forest law enforcement and governance, including actions to:
· Strengthen transparency and access to data for all matters on forest governance, and particularly for forest concessions information; and
· Strengthen regional enforcement cooperation.
§ A small steering group of key countries, including producing and consumer countries should meet in May in New York City, back-to-back with UNFF5. The group will consist of members of the Task Force from countries that play an important role in the region and that are positioned to contribute to a successful FLEG process. The steering group, with Indonesia’s participation, will assist the Philippines in planning a successful Task Force meeting and in working towards a productive Ministerial.
§ We invite Advisory Group to the Task Force to meet immediately prior to the steering group meeting in May in New York City.
§ The Task Force and Advisory Group should hold back-to-back meetings in the Philippines in September or thereafter in 2005. Countries will report on their FLEG focused activities and discuss future activities necessary to strengthen forest law enforcement and governance.
§ A Ministerial Meeting should be held in 2006.
We thank the European Commission and the United States for expressing interest in joining the steering group. We also invite the People’s Republic of China and Japan to join in the inaugural meeting in New York.
We invite the Governments of Malaysia and Singapore to join in the Asia FLEG Task Force deliberations to promote regional and international cooperation against the scourge of illegal logging which has caused and continues to cause enormous damage to the people, economies and biodiversity of our countries and the East Asia region.
We pledge to enact transparency of access to forestry data including data identifying and characterizing authorized concessions, harvest levels, and permit information, as well as the names of legally authorized sawmills and all information on the sources of logs and timber reaching sawmills.
We thank the European Commission for their FLEGT efforts to enact voluntary bilateral agreements between timber producing nations to license legal timber exports to the European Union countries and urge all G8 nations to pursue similar and other measures to close their markets to illegal timber and wood products at the earliest possible date.
We look forward to working with the Asia FLEG and G8 nations to increase cooperation to significantly reduce illegal logging and associated timber trade.
Signed 21 March 21, 2005
HON. MICHAEL T. DEFENSOR DR. TACHRIR FATHONI
Secretary, Department of Environment and Secretary of Directorate General of
Natural Resources Forest Protection and Nature
Conservation, Ministry of Forestry