The Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan received a visit from a Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) delegation from Geneva, led by Dradjad Wibowo, a member of the PEFC Board who is also a senior economist, and Michael Berger as CEO of PEFC. PEFC is the largest sustainable forest certification scheme in the world with 328 million certified forests. During the meeting, the Minister of Trade conveyed the importance of Indonesian products being processed from sustainable raw materials. “In the last two decades, there have been a lot of world giant companies that only want to buy processed products from sustainable forests,” said Zulkifli Hasan at the Ministry of Trade office, Tuesday (18/10/2022). The products, he said, include paper, pulp, wood products, furniture, and so on. “For example, companies such as Apple and Samsung require that their phone packaging boxes and paper be certified as sustainable,” explained the Trade Minister. He added, with the increasing size of online trade, the need for packaging boxes and paper in the world is increasing, reaching more than USD 402 billion or around IDR 6,200 trillion in 2021, and Indonesia with its sustainable forest management system has a very good opportunity to take up this large market so that Indonesia’s exports can increase rapidly. “I have always strongly encouraged sustainable forest management,” said Zulkifli, who was once the Minister of Forestry.
Meanwhile, Michael Berger highly appreciates and supports the steps taken by the Minister of Trade. According to Berger, the Minister of Trade’s move has created a conducive environment for Indonesian business actors to carry out their business under forest conservation principles. Berger explained that PEFC is a bottom-up global scheme, built on the national initiatives of each country. Berger said, in Indonesia, the scheme was built by members of the Indonesian Forestry Certification Cooperation (IFCC). “PEFC is one of the pioneers of the sustainable textile and fashion trade in the world, where the raw material is rayon which is produced from sustainable forests,” added Berger. To the Minister of Trade, Dradjad said that in 2009 or 2010 when the paper and pulp industry had not yet received a PEFC/IFCC certificate, the industry was boycotted because it was considered to be destroying forests. Exports of paper and pulp fell 25-30%. After obtaining the certificate, Indonesia's exports increased by USD 2.2 billion or 40%. In 2021 the export value will reach USD 7.42 billion. "The increase could occur because of the policies of the three ministries that are conducive to forest preservation, namely the Ministry of Trade, Environment and Forestry, and Industry," said Dradjad who is also the Founding Chair of IFCC.
