Timber Legality Assurance System (SVLK) serves to ensure timber products and raw materials obtained or derived from sources that its origins and management meet the legal aspects. Timber is considered to be legal when its origin, logging permit, logging systems and procedures, transport, processing, and trade can be proven to meet all applicable legal requirements. SVLK has been developed jointly by a number of parties (stakeholders). SVLK bears the standards, criteria, indicators, verifiers, verification methods, and assessment norms that the stakeholders come to agree.
The Government of Indonesia implements the SVLK to ensure that all timber products traded in Indonesia have convincingly achieved legal status. With the SVLK, consumers abroad no longer need to be doubted about the legality of timber from Indonesia. With the SVLK, farmers of community forests and indigenous forests are able to raise the bargaining power and no need to worry about the legality of their timber during transported. The furniture manufacturers are sure of the legality of the resources of the raw material to make easier for them to convince the buyers abroad. Indonesia takes gradual steps in adopting the SVLK. This is the first step in ensuring certificate of legality before heading to the certified sustainable forest management (sustainability).
The SVLK enactment itself is to provide legal certainty for Indonesian timber products on the global market. This effort is expected to help improve the competitiveness of Indonesian timber products, reduce illegal logging and illegal trade. Moreover, the SVLK also implies a serious commitment and consistent effort to improve forest governance in Indonesia. The SVLK comprises improved principles of better governance, the representativeness of the parties in the development and monitoring system, and transparency system. SVLK is an effort with soft approach to improve governance over the rampant illegal logging and timber trade.
SVLK complements the efforts of law enforcement (hard approach) that the Government has been adopted. Improvement through soft approach on administrative and logging management are improved with all parties and has credibility in its implementation. SVLK is also developed amidst the world’s trends in the legal timber trade. Governments in some importer countries apply regulations to assure the legality of timber products on trade, including those from imports, in each country. For example, the Government of the United States applies the Lacey Act, the European Union (EU) with the Timber Regulation, Australia with the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act, and Japan with Green Konyuho (Wood Goho).
The SVLK began into force in June 2009 when the Government of Indonesia issued the Regulation of the Minister of Forestry No. P.38/Menhut-II/2009 . It occurred when once the Minister of Forestry, MS Kaban, approved and adopted stakeholders proposal to become mandatory Standards and Guidelines for Performance Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and the Timber Legality Assurance (VLK). On its progress, the SVLK has been improved with the issuance of revised Regulation of the Minister of Forestry No. P.38/Menhut-II/2009 as Regulation of the Minister of Forestry No. P.68/Menhut-II/2011 and add revised by Regulation of the Minister of Forestry No. P.45/Menhut-II/2012 also Regulation of the Minister of Forestry No. P.42/Menhut-II/2013 . Demands over timber legality are not a new issue. The SVLK presents as a mandatory system for ensuring the compliance of all regulations relating to the timber distribution and trade in Indonesia. Export permits for timber products require V-Legal Documents (Verified Legal), as also required by the Regulation of the Minister of Trade (Regulation) 64/2012. Citra Fajar Utama is committed to government regulations in combating illegal logging and illegal timber trade to realize good forest governance towards sustainable forest management.
