Jakarta, March 26, 2020 – The coalition of civil society in monitoring the implementation of the Timber Legality Verification System (SVLK) sent an open letter to The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Friday, 20/3/2020). The civil society asked the president to immediately instruct the revocation or revision of the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 15 of 2020 (Permendag 15/2020) regarding the Export Provisions for Forestry Industrial Products. It is because these regulations remove the obligation for the use of V-Legal Documents as a requirement for exporting forestry products.
The V-Legal document is one of the export requirements for Indonesian forestry industrial products. The document stated that the exported product must fulfill the requirements of timber legality verification according to the government regulations. The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) argued that the regulations released (The Ministry of Trade Regulation Number 15/2020) were intended to make it effective for export industrial forestry products, which is to increase the higher export value. Currently, the convenience of exporting wood products without V-Legal documents was a step to anticipate the impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) on the economy.
The argumentation that SVLK is not required for exporting wood products to the
market is something that against Indonesia’s commitment to maintaining the system legality and traceability of wood products. Confirming that SVLK is unnecessary for the market means facilitating an export for a market that does not care about timber legality. It is also not used the principles of forest governance and allow the illegal logging potential more often.
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