COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC INFORMATION 9 November 2004 … · AND MARKET INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE ON...

INTERNATIONAL TROPICAL TIMBER COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC INFORMATION AND MARKET INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE ON FOREST INDUSTRY

Distr. GENERAL CEM-CFI(XXXV)/3 9 November 2004 Original: ENGLISH

THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION 13-18 December 2004 Yokohama, Japan

EX-POST EVALUATION REPORT

ITTO PROJECT PD 1/95 Rev.4 (M)

TRAINING DEVELOPMENT ON ASSESSMENT OF SUSTAINABLE

FOREST MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA

Prepared for ITTO

by

Chamniern Paul Vorratnchaiphan Thailand Environment Institute

December 2004

CEM-CFI(XXXV)/3 Page ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

PART I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

1. Background Information About the Project 1

2. Evaluation Purpose 1

3. Scope of the Evaluation 1

4. Conclusions of the Evaluation 2

4.1 Efficiency 2

4.2 Effectiveness 3

4.3 Impact and Effects 3

4.4 Challenges and lessons learnt 4

5. Recommendations and Future Considerations 5

5.1 Recommendations 5

5.2 Future Considerations 5

PART II MAIN TEXT 6

1. Project Context 6

1.1 Rationale for the Project 6

1.2 Beneficiaries of the Project Work 6

1.3 Project Objectives 7

1.4 Planned Outputs 7

1.5 Work Plan Summary 7

1.6 Required Inputs 8

1.7 Relevant Background Information 9

1.8 Project Location 9

1.9 The ITTO/ ITTA Context 10

2. Evaluation Scope and Focus 11

3. Evaluation Methodology 12

4. Findings and Lessons Learnt 12

4.1. Efficiency 12

4.2. Effectiveness 13

4.3. Impact and Effects 13

4.4. Challenges and Lessons Learned 14

PART III CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS 19

1. Conclusions 19

2. Recommendations 19

2.1. Capacity Building 19

2.2. Illegal Logging 20

2.3. Applicability of Certification and Eco-labelling System 20

3. Future Considerations 21

CEM-CFI(XXXIII)/3 Page iii

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4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 22

5 APPENDIX 23

5.1 List of documents review 23

5.2 Itinerary for Field Visit to LEI Office, Bogor, Sept. 6-10, 2004. 24

5.3 List of persons met 27

CEM-CFI(XXXV)/3 Page 1

PART I – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Background Information About the Project Since 1994, The Indonesian Eco-Labeling Working Group has been working to develop criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management and to build a system for forest certification in Indonesia. In April 1997, the criteria and indicators – developed following ITTO Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) – were accepted by major key stakeholders.1 Currently, these are officially acknowledged as national standard for sustainable forest management in Indonesia as indicated by the official numbers given to the draft: SN1 5000 and SN1 5000-1. The demand for well-qualified forestry professionals increased following the formulation of criteria and indicators and the finalization of system preparation for certification of SFM as the framework for the forest certification programme. Consequently, to enable a nation-wide SFM programme, the pool of capable professionals needed to be enlarged through training and capacity building programmes for forestry professionals. This project provided support to this programme. In May 1997, The Indonesian Eco-labeling Working Group submitted a project proposal, PD 1/95 Rev. 4 (M) ‘Training Development on the Certification of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia’ (hereinafter referred to as the project) to the International Tropical Timber Council requesting financial support of US$672.774 over a period of two years. The proposal was approved by the Council. An agreement concerning the implementation of the project was signed by ITTO, the Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia and the Indonesian Eco-labeling Working Group on 6 February 1998. The aim of the project was to empower and build the capacity of professionals in the implementation of the sustainable forest management certification programme. This aim was to be achieved through the provision of training to assessors of SFM, the trainers of assessors, certification decision making panels, forest managers and other relevant parties. This project was, therefore, an important contribution to the achievement of the ITTO 2000 Objective to bring forest concessions under SFM. 2. Evaluation Purpose This evaluation was conducted at the request of the ITTO Secretariat following the recommendation of the ITTO Committee on Economic Information and Market Intelligence at its Thirty-third Session held in Yokohama that an ex-post evaluation of PD 1/95 Rev. 4 (M) be undertaken. This ex-post evaluation seeks to look at the activities that had been planned and implemented and offers recommendations to guide future actions, including possible implementation of a next phase of operation. Apart from assessing achievements of the project, the intention of the report is to not only look to the past, but also to raise a number of issues and challenges that should be further discussed to address future needs and directions including future project cooperation. In this regard, a qualitative and critical assessment was made of efforts towards creating a more significant impact and achieving progress in SFM. 3. Scope of the Evaluation Within the evaluation exercise, one of the key tasks was to extract key lessons learned and issues that should be taken into account in the design and implementation of similar projects in future. The scope of the evaluation and expected activities also included an assessment of the achievement of the project’s objectives, its timeliness and quality. The value and sustainability of the project’s impacts were also examined in terms of future directions and opportunities. The stipulated terms of reference for the conduct of the evaluation are as follows:

i. Assess the extent to which the general objective, the specific objective and the outputs of the project have been achieved.

ii. Assess the relevance of the project to the ITTA and the ITTO Action Plans.

1 Accepted by Ministry of Forestry, Indonesian Forest Concession Holders Association, non-governmental organizations partners of the Working Group, as of April 1997.

CEM-CFI(XXXIII)/3 Page 2

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iii. Evaluate the impact and relevance of the project and determine to what extent the project has contributed to efforts towards enhancing capacity-building through training programmes in relation to the implementation of sustainable forest management and, in particular, forest certification in Indonesia.

iv. Determine the effectiveness of information dissemination of project outputs and assess the overall post project situation in relation to its impact on forests and the forestry sector in Indonesia particularly from the perspective of forest certification.

v. Define and assess any unexpected event, effect and impact, either harmful or beneficial, and offer explanation for their occurrence.

vi. Analyze and assess the efficiency of project implementation and management, including technical, financial and managerial aspects.

vii. Recommend follow-up action, where appropriate, in order to enhance utilization of the results of the project.

viii. Make an overall assessment of the project’s relative success of failure, summarize the key lessons learnt, and identify any issues or problems which should be taken into account in the design and implementation of similar projects in future.

ix. Prepare and evaluation report with an executive summary in accordance with the outline provided in the ITTO Manual for Project Monitoring, Review and Evaluation.

x. Prepare an article for possible publication in the ITTO Tropical Forest Update (TFU), in consultation with the editor, containing an overview of the project and summarizing the lessons learned from the evaluation work. Appropriate photographs should be provided, if possible. Guidelines for the preparation of articles for ITTO’s TFU are enclosed.

In addition to addressing the above, the evaluation should be conducted in such a way as to answer the questions identified in the ex-post evaluation checklist provided in the ITTO Manual for Project Monitoring Review and Evaluation. 4. Conclusions of the Evaluation While the project experienced some delays in the start-up period, LEI, having acquired and upgraded its personnel, was able to meet the time line and to achieve both the Development Objectives and the Specific Objectives without any major problems. Additionally, the project managed to fulfill the workplan within the financial inputs allocated (actually 1% below the planned amount). Although some errors regarding receipts and miscalculation were identified, these had been subsequently resolved to ITTO’s satisfaction. 4.1 Efficiency The quality of the tangible outputs (training materials and other documents) was of a high standard and activities were well documented. The outputs included:

Manuals that had been elaborated, tested and refined, detailing enhanced methods for data collections for field assessment;

Design and standardization of training curricula and manuals for expert panels; The training was systematically implemented and standardized, generating the following results:

137 trained field assessors;

40 trained assessors of Chain of Custody;

19 trained trainers for improving assessor institutions and assessor capacity;

29 trained participants for expert panels;

31 trained participants in the SFM assessment decision-making panels; The establishment of the Personnel Registration Body (PRB) through an independent training institute was, however, slightly delayed.


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4.2 Effectiveness As part of strengthening data collection and field analysis, the project was able to document and demonstrate practical methods. The training materials and manuals had been updated and improved based on the outcomes of the pilot testing, resulting in standardized training for SFM certification assessors. Its work in designing a Chain-of-Custody Training System has become an important tool in meeting the demand of environmentally concerned consumers. The project was successful in building the base of trained assessors and expert panels to meet the increasing demand within the certification process. To ensure further and ongoing development and refinement of training materials and curricula, LEI has accredited an independent training institution, the Foundation Conservation of Natural Resources (YBLH), to undertake these activities. LEI issued a number of publications and web-based media that increased the availability of independent and reliable information on SFM such as the Warta Ekolabel (ecolabelling news) and the website www.lei.or.id. Additionally, to improve understanding and networking among various stakeholders, LEI held a series of special training sessions that were attended by government officials, members of the press, NGOs, academics and forestry-based actors. The establishment of the Provincial Communication Forum (PCF) has been instrumental in obtaining credible information regarding the status of companies and individuals applying for certification. The forest certification network was also widened and strengthened by LEI and its accredited certifiers whose capacity and ability to source potential members for the expert panels and certification observers have been enhanced through such forums. These networks have been further strengthened through the establishment of linkages with international certification related organizations as well as the conduct of comparative studies on forest certification. The project resulted in the establishment of the Personnel Registration Body (PRB) system with which the assessors and expert panels involved in certification must be registered. The role of PRB was to register and monitor the track records as well as the competence of assessors and expert panels. However, due to lack of capacity, this function is still being performed by LEI in the interim. The training/socialization programme has begun the process of awareness raising among various stakeholders. The building of partnerships and networks has also increased the effectiveness of local communication within the certification process. Shifting to a phased approach to certification offers potential for the building of further local support for the certification process while also gaining international recognition of the standards applied. A potential weakness exists in the emphasis being placed on technical components of training within the certification process. Under the ongoing decentralization process, there is opportunity to readjust the objectives of cooperation towards improved governance for better forest management, incorporating local government and other key stakeholders in a more transparent and participatory process. 4.3 Impact and Effects The standards for SFM that have been refined through the testing and feedback system have become an input to the national forestry plan. With the input, there is greater capacity to establish linkages with the international forest management community and to improve overall awareness of forest management issues and approaches in Indonesia. With the project’s focus on human resource development, specific improvement in the quality and the quantity of professionals for assessing as well as implementing SFM practices using the Indonesian SFM criteria and indicators has been made. The main beneficiaries of the project were, therefore, the assessors, experts and concessionaires with enhanced capabilities and capacities in the field of assessment, evaluation and implementation of SFM. Through its awareness raising and socialization activities, the project has benefited a number of stakeholders involved in SFM. The project has also generated benefits to the overall timber market through its work with the international forestry community in raising awareness of the certification process being undertaken in Indonesia.

The developed methodologies for collecting and analyzing data as well as the training manuals have provided the guidelines for future training programmes for assessors, trainers of assessors and expert panels in various regions in Indonesia. The manuals and curricula also set out the standard requirements for training institutions intending to provide training for forestry professionals.


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As the implementation of the assessment process for SFM affects various stakeholders directly and indirectly, increased awareness through dissemination of SFM as well as its assessment and certification programme is important in gaining support from all stakeholders in the forestry sector. Strengthened institutional networks would ensure continuation of both trainings and implementation activities for SFM assessment. In addition, international linkages with other institutions involved in developing and implementing assessment criteria and indicators for SFM would support development of detailed manuals, trainings and future activities related to human resource development for SFM. The overall impact and effectiveness of the project was affected by the lack of close involvement and understanding of local governments in the SFM objectives and process. Under the ongoing decentralization process, local governments are given greater authority and responsibility in granting timber concessions and their exclusion from participating directly in the project (their participation falls outside the original project mandate) has an adverse impact on the effectiveness of implementing SFM and certification. 4.4 Challenges and lessons learnt To approach the analysis for identifying key issues, lessons learnt and recommending possible future directions, a set of key challenges were identified for each of the main topic areas. The work of the project is placed within two interrelated points of emphasis as the basis for evaluating the work of the project in light of the following challenges and opportunities that are still existent:

1. Illegal logging; and 2. Applicability of certification and eco-labelling system

In promoting the implementation of SFM certification, the project’s development objective is in full accordance with the priorities of ITTO and the objectives of ITTA, 1994. Through its activities, the project was able to contribute towards meeting the international market demand for certified tropical wood and wood products. Looking to the next steps within the context of the ITTA and ITTO’s objectives and goals, additional challenges and lessons learnt from the project were identified. The purpose is to offers ways and means to pursue further actions that would expand the potential impacts to the wider ITTA/ ITTO framework, specifically in regards to:

Objectives c: To contribute to the process of sustainable development; Objective j: To encourage members to develop national policies aimed at sustainable utilization and

conservation of timber producing forests and their genetic resources and at maintaining the ecological balance in the regions concerned, in the context of tropical timber trade;

Objective n: To encourage information sharing on the international timber market; Reforestation and Forest Management Goals 1: Support activities to secure the tropical timber

resource base; and Reforestation and Forest Management Goal 2: Promote sustainable management of tropical forest

resources. As a result, two important cross-cutting challenges were identified and lessons learned subsequently highlighted:

1. The first deals with the issue of “what other capacity building targets/ beneficiaries and topics are needed?”, especially in light of the changing role of local government under the country’s decentralization process. The lesson learnt was that the lack of involvement of local government within the certification and overall SFM objectives, has greatly reduced the project impact. There is need to design ways and means to promote greater involvement of local government in not only the certification process but also within the wider context of SFM, given their emerging responsibilities and authority under the decentralization process.

2. The second challenge relates to “how to build strategic partnerships for further success that emphasizes cooperation between government, civil society and the private sector?”. While the project was able to secure the involvement of the various stakeholders at one time or another, there remain the overall challenge of developing ways and means for a closer integration of these actors in a strategic partnership that is more transparent and accountable, but also with differentiated roles and tasks.


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Regarding challenges to reduce illegal logging, the key lessons learnt is the need to adapt current technical training and implementation practices to address more closely the local governance issues for SFM. As part of the overall move towards a more integrated approach to local governance, there is need to increase the participation of civil society within the certification process and to adopt a more balanced approach to local decision-making that goes beyond economic considerations to cover the environmental and social aspects as well. Illegal logging not only destroys forests but it can also destroy cultures. The rights and involvement of indigenous people within the overall process is very weak and the opportunity to involve them more closely in the certification and verification process to help reduce illegal logging in the short-term while also promoting greater sustainability over the long-term, has been missed. Within the context of eco-labelling, a lesson learnt is to find an appropriate balance between a certification system that can be accepted and used within the context of improving forest management practices while also addressing the need for a wider global acceptance of the procedures and resulting practices that are transparent and can be monitored in order to build market credibility. Additionally, the importing of timber and other wood products by neighbouring developing countries in the region will give rise to the need for building demand for ‘certified lumber’ not only in developed countries of Europe, but also in developing countries as well. Therefore, the resulting challenges to be addressed include:

developing a certification system (e.g.: such as the phased approach) that can satisfy international standards and norms, while still being realistically applied and implemented within the local context; and

taking a wider perspective to increasing demand for certified timber to also include other countries in the region which are now becoming importers of timber and wood products from Indonesia.

5. Recommendations and Future Considerations 5.1 Recommendations A number of recommendations have been derived from the above analysis. Within the context of the ITTA and ITTO’s objectives and goals, these recommendations can relate specifically to objectives c, j and n; and to Reforestation and Forest Management Goals 1 & 2.

1. The certification and related capacity building process should seize the opportunity that decentralization is presenting and work to integrate itself within the local development planning and implementation process.

2. Processes are to be implemented that increase the forming of strategic partnerships between government, civil society and the private sector at all levels to work towards common objectives.

3. Wider participation from NGOs and other actors in civil society (especially indigenous people) must be integrated into the process through greater involvement of the certification expert panels within the decision-making process.

4. LEI should continue its pursuit of a ‘phased approach’ to the certification process that encourages positive changes in logging practices.

5. There is need to maintain external expertise as an input to capacity building of technicians and professionals under the programme.

6. Strengthen regional co-operation and networking for action on illegal logging through eco-labelling. 5.2 Future considerations In order to more actively pursue sustainability of the forest resources, the certification process should be utilized as a means to promote good governance by facilitating participation of more stakeholders, supporting greater transparency and accountability and work to foster equity among the stakeholders.

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PART II - MAIN TEXT 1. Project Context

Since 1994 the Indonesian Eco-Labeling Working Group has undertook national capacity building for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) certification. The group applied ITTO’s Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), principles and criteria of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and the environmental management system developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). One of the outcomes was the establishment of Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia (LEI), The Indonesian Eco-labelling Institute in 1998. With application of the criteria & indicators (C & I) certification system for SFM, the demand for well-qualified forestry professional was expected to increase. Therefore, to enable a nation-wide SFM program, the pool of capable professionals needed to be enlarged through training and capacity building. In May 1997, the Indonesian Eco-labeling Working Group submitted a project proposal, PD 1/95 Rev. 4 (M) ‘Training Development on the Certification of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia’ (hereinafter referred to as the project) to the International Tropical Timber Council requesting financial support of US$672.774 over a period of two years. The proposal was approved by the Council. An agreement concerning the implementation of the project was signed by ITTO, the Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia and the Indonesian Eco-labeling Working Group on 6 February 1998. This project was designed and implemented to empower and build the capacity of professionals in the implementation of the sustainable forest management certification programme. It concentrated upon developing curricula and training materials as well as delivering training programs for assessors of forest management units practicing sustainable forest management, training of trainers and expert/ decision-making panels, and forestry professionals with inputs from ITTO as well as other organizations in various regions in Indonesia. Under the project, LEI also provided the Chain of Custody (CoC) system as a mechanism for timber tracking. The manuals and curricula also set out standard requirements for training institutions intended to provide training for forestry professionals. This project was, therefore, an important contribution to the achievement of the ITTO 2000 Objective to bring forest concessions under SFM. As implementation of the assessment process for SFM affected various stakeholders both directly and indirectly, increased awareness through dissemination of the Sustainable Forest Management as well as its assessment and certification program played an important component in gaining support from all actors in the forestry sector. Strengthened institutional capacity, public awareness and strengthened networks were needed to ensure continuation of both training and implementation activities. As a result, LEI introduced a special training/ socialization program to improve understanding and networking among various stakeholders involved in pursuing SFM. 1.1 Rationale for the Project

Indonesia is a country with an area of 60 million hectares in forest and over 200 million people, where a large proportion of that population is either directly or indirectly working in the forest sector. As one of the major contributing sectors to Indonesia’s economy and partly due to its significant role as non-oil export revenue, SFM has become a high priority for the country. This situation if further compounded by the increasing demand by buyers (e.g. Western Europe) for certified wood products. As the need for SFM certification becomes increasingly pressing, many obstacles for the implementation of SFM certification in Indonesia also needed to be address. Among them was the unavailability of qualified personnel to undertake the assessment and decision-making processes demanding additional training and capacity building of the key institutions. This type of needed training had not been carried out in Indonesia previously due to the very nature of SFM certification being very specific, as well as the technical and practical nature of LEI’s C & I in the field application. Under these conditions, the project had the potential to provide the necessary inputs to design a training system and implement that approach. It was realized that since the persons trained would not necessarily work directly in the certification processes, but would see many in the FMU, it would therefore be beneficial to adopt SFM through a verification of a third party. 1.2 Beneficiaries of the project work

The project was to directly benefit SFM assessors, forestry related experts and concessionaire holders by increasing their capabilities for assessing, evaluating, and implementing sustainable forest management


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practices. The project was also to affect all stakeholders as it provided increased knowledge and awareness about SFM. Through SFM certification and product labelling, international markets and consumers would have an option to purchase and demand wood products that originate from well managed and certified forests of Indonesia. The international forestry community will also benefit from the development of methodology, curricula and training manuals for consideration in the implementation of training activities on SFM assessment. Indirectly, the global environment will be positively affected as mass awareness of the importance of SFM will impact upon changing the global environmental condition. 1.3 Project Objectives Development Objective saw the aim of the Project being to accelerate the implementation of sustainable forest management in Indonesia by providing training and capacity building for personnel involved in SFM. The activity was interrelated with SFM certification system designed by LEI through a multi-stakeholder process. The LEI SFM national initiative was mainly based on the ITTO criteria and indicators. Since the practical implementation required skilled and knowledgeable personnel in the field, a specific training for assessment and expert panel was considered necessary on how to conduct assessment and decision-making in SFM certification. Specific Objectives of project work can thus be summarized into two components:

1. To develop assessor’s capacity in the field inspection for SFM;

The Project had conducted activities in upgrading methods and application for data collection and analysis to determine C & I and formulation of standardized training materials for SFM assessment and training for the assessors in SFM.

2. Strengthening the institutional capacity to assure SFM

The Project has worked to improve the ability of the expert’s panel by creating a standardized manual, conducting training workshops and applying those materials to increase the ability of forest assessment, followed by providing reliable information on SFM in Indonesia. Other activities included upgrading knowledge and awareness on SFM for all stakeholders and integration into networks regarding national standardization systems for SFM.

1.4 Planned Outputs Under the two specific objectives a set of expected outputs were planned: Specific Objective 1: To develop assessor’s capacity in the field inspection for SFM

To increase the capability of assessors in SFM;

To design acceptable SFM criteria, training curricula and materials;

To provide a pool of trained trainers and assessors; Specific Objective 2: Strengthening the institutional capacity to assure SFM

To design an manual for the expert panel;

Provide a pool of qualified experts;

Study information material that been disseminated;

Upgrade stakeholder awareness;

Establish a network on nationally standardized system for SFM 1.5 Work Plan Summary The Project Agreement between the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute and ITTO for the implementation of Project PD 1/95 Rev. 4(M) was signed February 6, 1998. The project workplan was discussed in a series of meetings and was subsequently approved by the Project Steering Committee with a number activities subsequently carried out and completed.

Component 1 Activities: Development of human resources for the field assessment of sustainable forest management


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Provision of technical assistance for the working group in data collection and analysis methods based on SFM C& I;

Seminars and workshops conducted as an assessment of the method’s application in training;

Design and development of curriculum based on C & I of SFM;

Development of training material for field inspection of SFM;

Initial testing of curriculum and materials for assessor training;

Completion of evaluation and refinement of training materials and curriculum;

Scheduling and identification of potential trainers for the training of trainers;

Implementation of the training of trainers;

Establishment of the training system. Component 2 Activities: Institutional capacity building

Development of manuals for expert panels;

Development of curriculum for training of the expert panels;

Initial testing of the curriculum and manuals;

Evaluation and refinement of curriculum and manuals based on the testing results;

Establishment of a decision-making process in assessing SFM;

Scheduling and identification of potential experts to be involved in the SFM assessment report;

Implementation of training workshops for potential expert panel members;

Establishment of expert panel recruitment system;

Preparation, provision and distribution of Information Kit on SFM and certification process;

Publishing of Information Kits;

Workshop for concessionaires on SFM and certification process;

Public seminars and discussion involving relevant government institutions;

Workshop for stakeholders to establish network on SFM;

Establishment of database on SFM and certification process;

International linkages established and comparative study on certification. 1.6 Required Inputs The following inputs were required for the Project implementation:

No. Project Component ITTO Contribution (USD)

1. Project personnel 263,9532. Sub-contracts 42,5763. Duty travel 75,0604. Capital items 42,5675. Consumable items 121,1276. Miscellaneous 58,3867. ITTO Monitoring & Evaluation 55,074

TOTAL 658,744 The actual funds used in the project differ from the originally agreed amount of $672,774 due to a shortfall in funds received for the third and final installment of $10,542. The ITTO monitoring and evaluation component was used by ITTO and not disbursed via LEI. At the end of the project, there was a balance of US $4,124 (source: Final Report).


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1.7 Relevant Background Information The Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI) was first established in 1994 as a working group. Until mid-1998, the group had been working to prepare the implementation of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) certification. The preparation stage involved development of criteria and indicators for SFM, an assessment system, decision-making tools, and capacity building for all stakeholders involved in the certification process. LEI’s SFM Certification System, including its C&I, was developed with reference to SFM’s principles and criteria of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), as well as the environmental management system developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

In June 1994, the result of Sustainable Forest Management prepared by the working group was tested in three concession areas of Riau, East Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan. In 1996, the test resulted in a widely approved certification system of sustainable natural forest management. The system was consisted of:

a. Procedures for certification of natural production forest management;

b. Logical framework for evaluation of production forest management;

c. Procedure of decision-making with Analytic Hierarchy Process;

d. Criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management;

e. Chain-of-Custody.

On February 6, 1998, LEI was officially established as a non-profit legal entity. In June 1998, the National Standardization Body of Indonesia has officially adopted the SFM Certification System for production forests, developed by LEI together with the forestry stakeholders. In April 1997, the criteria and indicators – developed following ITTO Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) – were accepted by major key stakeholders.2 Currently, these are officially acknowledged as the national standard for sustainable forest management in Indonesia as indicated by the official numbers given to the draft: SN1 5000 and SN1 5000-1.

The acceptance has met LEI’s vision to become an independent, constitute-based institution whose main objective was to ensure a sustainable natural resources and environmental management through the application of credible ecolabelling certification system.

LEI’s mission were:

(a) To develop a credible certification system of sustainable natural resources and environmental management;

(b) To develop an accreditation system as a check-and-balance control mechanism to ensure the implementation of the above certification system;

(c) To develop institutional and human resource factor meant as an action of achieving capacity building to support the implementation of ecolabelling certification system;

(d) To supervise the implementation of the above certification system;

(e) To encourage the development and adoption of policy measures in promoting sustainable management of natural resources and environment.

Currently, LEI has four accredited Certification Bodies and one accredited independent training institution implementing the LEI-SFM certification system in Indonesia. 1.8 Project Location

The project was not conducted in any particular designated area. The training and workshops were conducted in Bogor, Jakata, Changkuang and Sukabumi. The field works were performed in Perum Perhutani KPH Sukabumi, Barito Pacific Timber IFA Jamb. Regional consultation forums were also conducted in Riau, North Sulawesi, South-East Sulawesi, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Northern Sumatera Central Kalimantan, and Maluku-Irian Jaya.

2 Accepted by Ministry of Forestry, Indonesian Forest Concession Holders Association, non-governmental organizations partners of the Working Group, as of April 1997.


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1.9 The ITTO/ITTA Context a. Compliance with the ITTA 1994 Objectives

Development objectives of the project were in full accordance with the concerns of ITTO and the objectives of ITTA 1994. The project has greatly promoted the implementation of sustainable forest management certification. This in turn, will be a contribution to the international market, which is in need of certified tropical wood and products from Indonesia, thus increasing the value and foundation of present and future sustainable wood trading.

The project met the terms within the framework of the Economic Information and Market Intelligence committee. The activities of this project as were related to the following ITTA 1994 objectives, in particular were:

(a) Provided an effective framework for consultation, international cooperation and policy development among all members in all relevant level of the world timber economy;

(b) Enhanced capacity of the members in implementing the strategy of achieving the export of tropical timber and timber products from sustainable managed sources by the year of 2000;

(c) Promoted the expansion and diversification of international trade in tropical timber from sustainable sources, by improvement of structural conditions on international markets; with taking into account, on one hand, a long-term increase in consumption and supply continuity, and prices reflecting the costs of sustainable forest management that remunerative and equitable for members on the other hand. That was added by improvement of market access;

(d) To improve market intelligence with the aim of ensuring greater transparency in the international timber market, including the gathering, compilation and dissemination of trade related data, including data related to species being traded;

(e) To improve the marketing and distribution of tropical timber exports from sustainable managed sources;

With emphasis on the training and capacity building for the implementation of SFM certification scheme in Indonesia while also promoting the presence of certified wood in Indonesia, the project has fully complied with the objectives of ITTA 1994, explicitly and implicitly.

The specific objectives of this project were as follows:

1. To develop the assessor’s capability in the field inspection for Sustainable Forest Management;

2. To strengthen the institutional capacity to assure the SFM implementation in Indonesia.

This project’s results have made a contribution into the existing certified sustainable forest management in Indonesia as well as to the availability of their products for international trade.

The projects was aimed to provide necessary prerequisite by providing qualified personnel to implement SFM certification systems, compile a standardized training system for both assessor and expert panels, establish regional consultation forum, and information distribution to all the stakeholders involved.

In this regard, the project has acted in accordance with seven priority actions very essential to the advancement toward the ITTO Year 2000 Objective to bring forest concessions under SFM, they were in particular:

To adopt a forest policy and to apply related legislation;

To train the work force, including supervisors, on the reduction of logging impact;

To raise the public awareness that timber harvesting should be parallel with the sustainability of tropical forests; (a continuing course of action taken by LEI that would greatly be improved when the project is implemented).

b. Compliance with ITTO Action Plan

The project was complied to the specific goals and supporting actions of the ITTO Action Plan of Year 1998 to 2000 in the Economic Information and Market Intelligence field, as portrayed below:

Goal 1. Improvement in International timber market transparency

As stated by the actions, achieving this goal included the encouragement and assistance to the members in developing manpower skills through appropriate approaches, including the ITTO Fellowship Program. The training program has produced a pool of qualified personnel as assessors and expert panels who will partake


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as pioneers in performing Sustainable Forest Management certification assessment. Active participation in promoting Indonesian certification initiative has been undertaken during the project’s duration to establish international market confidence up the presence of SFM certification in Indonesia.

Goal 2. Improvement in marketing and distribution of tropical timber exports from sustainable managed sources

Presently, a significant gap between demand and availability in the international market for certified wood and products of sustainable forest management has occurred. That was due to, among other things, lack of qualified personnel to implement the SFM certification. In consequence, there were still a small number of forest management unit whose currently obtain sustainable forest management certification and the field.

Through the Project, increased capacity for the implementation on sustainable forest certification in Indonesia was intended to initiate the urgency and wider implementation of certification, thus, increasing the supply of certified wood and products from Indonesia for the international market. 2. Evaluation Scope and Focus This evaluation was conducted at the request of the ITTO Secretariat following the recommendation of the ITTO Committee on Economic Information and Market Intelligence at its Thirty-third Session held in Yokohama that an ex-post evaluation of PD 1/95 Rev. 4 (M) - Training Development on Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia implemented by the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI) be undertaken. This ex-post evaluation seeks to look at the activities that had been planned and implemented and offers recommendations to guide future actions, including possible implementation of a next phase of operation. The scope of the evaluation and expected activities included an assessment of the achievement of the project’s objectives, its timeliness and quality. In addition to assessing achievements of the project, the intention of the report is to not only look to the past, but also to raise a number of issues and challenges that should be further discussed to address upcoming needs and directions including future project cooperation. Within this evaluation exercise, one of the key tasks was therefore to extract lessons learned and identify issues that should be taken into account in the design and implementation of similar projects in future. The value and sustainability of the project’s impacts were also placed in terms of future directions and emerging opportunities. In this regard, a qualitative and critical assessment was made of efforts towards creating a more significant impact and achieving progress in SFM. The terms of reference for the conduct of the evaluation are as follows:

i. Assess the extent to which the general objective, the specific objective and the outputs of the project have been achieved.

ii. Assess the relevance of the project to the ITTA and the ITTO Action Plans.

iii. Evaluate the impact and relevance of the project and determine to what extent the project has contributed to efforts towards enhancing capacity-building through training programmes in relation to the implementation of sustainable forest management and, in particular, forest certification in Indonesia.

iv. Determine the effectiveness of information dissemination of project outputs and assess the overall post project situation in relation to its impact on forests and the forestry sector in Indonesia particularly from the perspective of forest certification.

v. Define and assess any unexpected event, effect and impact, either harmful or beneficial, and offer explanation for their occurrence.

vi. Analyze and assess the efficiency of project implementation and management, including technical, financial and managerial aspects.

vii. Recommend follow-up action, where appropriate, in order to enhance utilization of the results of the project.

viii. Make an overall assessment of the project’s relative success of failure, summarize the key lessons learnt, and identify any issues or problems which should be taken into account in the design and implementation of similar projects in future.

ix. Prepare and evaluation report with an executive summary in accordance with the outline provided in the ITTO Manual for Project Monitoring, Review and Evaluation.


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x. Prepare an article for possible publication in the ITTO Tropical Forest Update (TFU), in consultation with the editor, containing an overview of the project and summarizing the lessons learned from the evaluation work. Appropriate photographs should be provided, if possible. Guidelines for the preparation of articles for ITTO’s TFU are enclosed.

In addition to addressing the above, it was also noted that the evaluation should be conducted in such a way as to answer the questions identified in the ex-post evaluation checklist provided in the ITTO Manual for Project Monitoring Review and Evaluation. This ex-post evaluation was undertaken by Dr. Chamniern P. Vorratnchaiphan and was conducted over the period of August – September 2004. 3. Evaluation Methodology The consultant has compiled and reviewed existing materials and information (see appendix for list of documents reviewed). The evaluation included a visit to Indonesia during the period 6-10 September, 2004, with interviews and a series of discussions with programme managers (past and present), implementers and practitioners at the regional and country level (see appendix for list of discussants) that included meetings with key persons from LEI, ITTO, assessors and expert panel members, private sector, government and NGO representatives. The following presentation is a set of challenges identified, lessons learnt and recommendations that have been derived to date from these discussions and information reviewed. It is recognized that significant identification and evaluation of the project’s work regarding outputs and achievements in implementation of the workplan had already been carried out through other previous reports and discussions (e.g. Final Report and Financial Audit). As part of this current analysis, significant emphasis was placed upon identifying a set of challenges that are believed to be important to help better understand issues surrounding future directions of the project design and implementation. As such, they are also intended to stimulate further discussion and serve as a basis for possible options and next steps/ directions. 4. Findings and lessons learnt 4.1 Efficiency While the project experienced some delays in the start-up period, LEI, having acquired and upgraded its personnel, was able to meet the time line and to achieve both the Development Objectives and the Specific Objectives without any major problems. Additionally, the project managed to fulfill the workplan within the financial inputs allocated (actually 1% below the planned amount). Although some errors regarding receipts and miscalculation were identified, these had been subsequently resolved to ITTO’s satisfaction. The quality of the tangible outputs (training material and other documents) was of a high standard and activities were well documented. The outputs included:

Manuals that had been elaborated, tested and refined that detailed enhanced methods for data collections for field assessment;

Design and standardization of training curricula and manuals for expert panels;

The training was systematically implemented and standardized to where the project:

137 trained field assessors;

40 trained assessors of Chain of Custody;

19 trained trainers for improving assessor institutions and assessor capacity;

29 trained participants for expert panels;

31 trained participants in the SFM assessment decision-making panels; The establishment of the Personnel Registration Body (PRB) through an independent training institute was, however, slightly delayed.


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4.2 Effectiveness As part of strengthening data collection and field analysis, the project was able to document and demonstrate practical methods. The training materials and manuals had been updated and improved based on the outcomes of the pilot testing, resulting in standardized training for SFM certification assessors. Its work in designing a Chain-of-Custody Training System has become an important tool in meeting the demand of environmentally concerned consumers. The project was successful in building the base of trained assessors and expert panels to meet the increasing demand within the certification process. To ensure further and ongoing development and refinement of training materials and curricula, LEI has accredited an independent training institution, the Foundation Conservation of Natural Resources (YBLH), to undertake these activities. LEI issued a number of publications and web-based media that increased the availability of independent and reliable information on SFM such as the Warta Ekolabel (ecolabelling news) and the website www.lei.or.id. Additionally, to improve understanding and networking among various stakeholders, LEI held a series of special training sessions that were attended by government officials, members of the press, NGOs, academics and forestry-based actors. The establishment of the Provincial Communication Forum (PCF) has been instrumental in obtaining credible information regarding the status of companies and individuals applying for certification. The forest certification network was also widened and strengthened by LEI and its accredited certifiers whose capacity and ability to source potential members for the expert panels and certification observers have been enhanced through such forums. These networks have been further strengthened through the establishment of linkages with international certification related organizations as well as the conduct of comparative studies on forest certification. The project resulted in the establishment of the Personnel Registration Body (PRB) system with which the assessors and expert panels involved in certification must be registered. The role of PRB was to register and monitor the track records as well as the competence of assessors and expert panels. However, due to lack of capacity, this function is still being performed by LEI in the interim. The training/socialization programme has begun the process of awareness raising among various stakeholders. The building of partnerships and networks has also increased the effectiveness of local communication within the certification process. Shifting to a phased approach to certification offers potential for the building of further local support for the certification process while also gaining international recognition of the standards applied. A potential limitation to the effectiveness exists in the emphasis being placed on technical components of training within the certification process. This technical emphasis did not recognize the ongoing decentralization process and the related needs for incorporating SFM as part of a wider governance approach that incorporates local government and other key stakeholders into the process in a more transparent and participatory manner for better forest management. 4.3 Impact and Effects The standards for SFM that have been refined through the testing and feedback system have become an input to the national forestry plan. With the input, there is greater capacity to establish linkages with the international forest management community and to improve overall awareness of forest management issues and approaches in Indonesia. With the project’s focus on human resource development, specific improvement in the quality and the quantity of professionals for assessing as well as implementing SFM practices using the Indonesian SFM criteria and indicators has been made. The main beneficiaries of the project were, therefore, the assessors, experts and concessionaires with enhanced capabilities and capacities in the field of assessment, evaluation and implementation of SFM. Through its awareness raising and socialization activities, the project has benefited a number of stakeholders involved in SFM. The project has also generated benefits to the overall timber market through its work with the international forestry community in raising awareness of the certification process being undertaken in Indonesia. The developed methodologies for collecting and analyzing data as well as the training manuals have provided the guidelines for future training programmes for assessors, trainers of assessors and expert


/ . . .

panels in various regions in Indonesia. The manuals and curricula also set out the standard requirements for training institutions intending to provide training for forestry professionals.

As the implementation of the assessment process for SFM affects various stakeholders directly and indirectly, increased awareness through dissemination of SFM as well as its assessment and certification programme is important in gaining support from all stakeholders in the forestry sector. Strengthened institutional networks would ensure continuation of both trainings and implementation activities for SFM assessment. In addition, international linkages with other institutions involved in developing and implementing assessment criteria and indicators for SFM would support development of detailed manuals, trainings and future activities related to human resource development for SFM. The overall impact and effectiveness of the project was affected by the lack of close involvement and understanding of local governments in the SFM objectives and process. Under the ongoing decentralization process, local governments are given greater authority and responsibility in granting timber concessions and their exclusion from participating directly in the project (their participation falls outside the original project mandate) has an adverse impact on the effectiveness of implementing SFM and certification. 4.4 Challenges and Lessons Learned This first section summarizes a number of key points raised during interviews and fact-finding, and provides the input to help analyze the project’s implementation and identify possible future directions. These findings form the basis for further discussion of the challenges leading to the subsequent formulation of general and specific recommendations.

In promoting the implementation of SFM certification, the project’s development objective was in full accordance with the priorities of ITTO and the objectives of ITTA, 1994. As noted above, through its technical training and other activities, the project was able to contribute towards meeting the international market demand for certified tropical wood and wood products.

However, looking to the next steps within the context of the ITTA and ITTO’s objectives and goals, several challenges and lessons learnt were identified that build upon the ex-post evaluation findings, as well as points identified within the Project Final Report and other previous documentation. The purpose is to offers ways and means to pursue further actions that would expand the potential impacts to include additional ITTA/ ITTO objectives and framework, specifically in regards to:

Objectives c: To contribute to the process of sustainable development;

Objective j: To encourage members to develop national policies aimed at sustainable utilization and conservation of timber producing forests and their genetic resources and at maintaining the ecological balance in the regions concerned, in the context of tropical timber trade;

Objective n: To encourage information sharing on the international timber market;

Reforestation and Forest Management Goals 1: Support activities to secure the tropical timber resource base; and

Reforestation and Forest Management Goal 2: Promote sustainable management of tropical forest resources.

To approach the analysis for identifying these key issues and lessons learnt, and subsequently recommending possible future directions, a set of key challenges were identified for each of the main topic areas. To facilitate elaboration, two interrelated points of emphasis were used as the basis for evaluating the work of the project in light of the cross-cutting and specific challenges and opportunities that are still existent:

1. Illegal logging; and

2. Applicability of certification and eco-labelling system To approach the analysis for identifying key issues and recommending possible future directions regarding these two points of emphasis, a set of key challenges have been identified in the form of questions that are subsequently reflected upon. a. Cross-cutting challenges

What other capacity building approaches, targets/ beneficiaries and topics are needed?

How to build strategic partnerships for success among the following actors?


/ . . .

Government; (policy)

Civil Society (monitoring and recipients of services)

Private Sector (producers)

LEI assessors/ expert panel/ certifying bodies (providing support to the above) To date, considerable technical training inputs have been developed for and delivered to key assessors and expert panels in order to build a pool of knowledge and resource persons. Additionally, training inputs are being pursued towards ‘socialization’ that focuses increasingly upon awareness building of a limited number of stakeholders. While the overall conducting of training was considered good, and supported by intensive inputs and systematic approaches to the training, the actual impact by those trained is seen as weak and constrained by external factors. In addition to this technically focused training there are increasing demands for capacity building for SFM to be put into a wider ‘governance’ context. Under the ongoing decentralization process, it is the role of local government units that is becoming increasingly critical within the context of SFM. However, their capacity is limited by two interrelated factors that can be supported by capacity building inputs at two levels:

1. Locally: After being governed through strong central leadership for so many years, few LGUs were prepared, aware and/ or capable to take on many of the new tasks and responsibilities allowed them, especially in the area of management of the environment and natural resources. This lack of good and effective governance at the local level is further complicated by:

2. Nationally: A lack of clear vision and strategy from the national level in this regard who decentralized certain powers without providing the clear directions and effective monitoring to ensure good and effective governance at the local level in general, and aspects of natural resource and environmental management in particular.

Part of this building capacity for better local governance is also dependant upon strengthening partnerships among all three components of: government – civil society – private sector. With LEI’s proposed status to change to a ‘membership based’ organization, there exists further opportunities to now have a more direct means of bringing in a wider range of stakeholders a functional network and subsequently providing additional support and services to all three components of society thus expanding LEI’s mandate. Regarding issues of natural resource management, there is a need to begin to foster some common objectives among the various actors regarding sustainability by going beyond ‘socialization training’, and while each actor should ‘have their own job’ there is a need to promote greater accountability and processes that are shown to be beneficial to all parties. Within this context, the role of the Provincial Communication Forum has the potential to become increasingly important to provide a linkage between national strategies and local implementation. b. Illegal logging:

1. Does the existing certification and eco-labeling system promote SFM by reducing illegal logging – or does it increase the incidence of illegal logging?

Three sub-questions refine the investigation:

Is the process of certification a means to achieve the ‘end’?

Does government policy really appreciate this as a means for SFM?

With SFM, can you do without civil society participation?

2. Does SFM need to widen its target groups to emphasize indigenous people?

3. Does the decentralization process in Indonesia represent a threat or an opportunity to reduce the incidence of illegal logging?

Illegal logging is a national crisis in Indonesia, and has become entrenched within part of the societal and institutional framework in some areas of the country. It is not only happening within concession areas, but is encroaching into national reserves and forests. A paradox is emerging that in the face of rising international demand for lumber and wood products, the price of wood still remains very cheap as a result of the scale of the illegal logging activities. Because of this, there is a danger that certification could potentially promote the very incidence it is trying to overcome if it raises costs substantially to the producers and becomes tied to laundering processes. This danger is seen as partially arising from an emphasis being placed on


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certification as a technical application and not as part of an overall governance and management approach that involves a wider range of actors. To date only one (PT. Diamond Raya Timber) out of over 400 concessionaires have been certified since the process began, however an additional thirteen FMUs are currently in process showing the growing interest in pursuing certification under the Joint Certification Protocol (JCP) scheme. This increasing interest by the FMUs is encouraging for the long-term success of the project and co-operation. The reasons cited for lack of more significant numbers applying for and gaining certification include the required timeline, conflicts of the collection of fees between the national and local level, and the weak incentives for

concessionaires pursing certification. The central government has supported the certification effort with policy and other measures that promote the principles of SFM, however, the mechanism are weak to the point of making it ineffective. Within this context, the point has been made that a legally functioning system does not equate to sustainability. Certification is a piece of paper, but not a guarantee for SFM, in this regards it was raised that implementers need to exercise caution that reliance solely on a technocratic approach to adopting the procedures should not overshadow other approaches needed to achieve the overall objectives. To implement SFM successfully requires a wide participation by civil society. Civil society efforts against illegal logging are still very weak and not well organized. With the entrenchment of illegal logging within parts of the society, energies against it are seen to be waning. While awareness raising through socialization activities as undertaken by LEI is good and on the right track, further efforts are needed to achieve more active participation within the certification process. There are encouraging signs that NGO awareness and activism is increasing. However, as in other developing countries, demonstrations and public conflicts are not necessarily an indication of a functioning system of checks and balances, but is often a result of manipulation by vested interests. To fight illegal logging, local people and organizations must also be networked and organized and involved within a wider partnership including government and the private sector. Part of this wider participation by the public needs to include indigenous people. Illegal logging is not only destroying forests, but it is also destroying cultures of which the indigenous people are most directly impacted. This segment in the population has the potential to make additional contributions to protecting natural resources. A number of examples have been given where some groups are very well organized to take action – although not always with positive intentions. A number of barriers to their effective participation exist. The government still does not recognize the indigenous people as legitimate citizens, resulting in frequent evictions and lack of active participation in management of resources at the local level. There are still significant instances of unclear tenure and a long history of unrecognized indigenous rights and community. (If people are considered as outside the legal framework, then by definition there is more likelihood of them undertaking illegal activities.) Additionally, the process of awarding concessions tends to lack transparency and to be non-participatory. As such, this process often holds little regard for indigenous communities living in the target areas as well as for other communities living around the forest. This high degree of uncertainty of rights and tenure by forest communities results in a lack of a sense of protection within the regulations, and a lack of ownership to the forest. Under these circumstances, strict law enforcement may adversely affect poor communities and lead to further social isolation.


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As with NGOs and other civil society groups, there is a need to closely integrate this group within the overall certification process through greater awareness raising, capacity building and legal acceptance of this population. Perhaps the biggest challenge faced in dealing with illegal logging is in regards to decentralization. As decentralization occurred at a time of uncertainty, benefits largely fell to, and reinforced the power of, the local elite resulting in many local government units (LGUs), not being ready to exercise their new found authority for SFM. They are constrained by lack of overall awareness and perception of SFM issues as well as lack of capacity to deal with issues of resource management. The major impact is occurring from local governments granting concessions to small operations who typically undertake clear-cutting rather than the more environmentally sensitive selective cutting practices. Additionally, the granting of concessions may fall outside designated areas and may encroach into national reserves and forests including granting of larger areas than officially permitted (this involves large FMUs as well as small). Additionally, local governments now have authority to put additional fees and taxes on logging operations in their jurisdictions. It was commented that in some local governments, illegal logging can contribute up to 60% of local revenue (both formal and informal). While there have been some calls for recentralization – other approaches are needed that strengthen the monitoring aspects, introduce capacity building in natural resource management and promote greater accountability. To support a stronger decentralization process in overall natural resource management (NRM), a strong central vision must first be developed that can provide the needed guidance at all levels. c. Applicability of Certification and Eco-labeling System

1. Is the ‘marriage’ between LEI and FSC workable – is there a balance achievable between local applicability and global recognition?

2. Does certification place too much authority with technical experts and not enough with the certifying bodies and civil societies?

3. Does government, civil society and private sector all see the importance of this?

4. How to create and build market credibility in the international context and convey this to producers?

5. Is there a need to extend the demand for eco-labelling to neighbouring developing countries?

6. Is the cost of certification a burden to concessionaires? The process of eco-labelling itself is a problem as it relates to reducing illegal logging. LEI has stated that there must be criteria and indicators while concessionaires state that the process is too complicated and constrained by the fixed timeframes. Within the existing process, there is a heavy reliance upon the experts while the certifying body has a much smaller role to play. The result of this is the proposed ‘phased approach’. The challenge that exists is to find a process that works in the national context while meeting global recognition. The FSC process has the advantage for being recognized in a global marketing context, but not necessarily well recognized within the country. While LEI states that it does not need outside technical experts as they have sufficient capability at universities, and other experts, most international organizations continue to strengthen their institutions and processes through maintaining external linkages and networking regardless of existing capacity. The balance is to find a system that works within the Indonesian context (identity, system and legal framework) and results in more certificates being issued yet improves the quality of experts and assessors that will permit their own system to be internationally recognized. One of the identified blockages in the country is the societal view that eco-labelling is not ‘mainstream’ and that there are many other bigger issues for the environment. Many did not see the value of the approach as it was very systematic with many complex laws and regulations and restrictive time frames. As part of the process of creating more acceptance on the part of concessionaires and the public for eco-labelling, is the need to shift the process from one heavily weighted as a technical exercise towards a


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process that is more integrated into the overall governance process at local, provincial and national levels. As such, there is not only the need for wider integration of civil society into the process, but there is a demand for greater capacity building at the local government level who now have an increasingly important role to play in management of natural resources including forestry. Concurrently, the national level also needs a more accountable and transparent system to be fostered that will further support sustainability of the forest resources and give guidance to the local levels. Building and maintaining ‘market credibility’ becomes the challenge of operating at the national and global scale. Approaches are needed that overcome the difficulties in monitoring and certifying that products did not come from illegal logging. Through the certification and eco-labelling process, the objective would be to understand the cost of illegal logging and the value of pursuing certification, and diligently monitor illegal logging while promoting an alternate system that works. While the global context for driving eco-labelling is often seen from the European perspective, it should be recognized that many developing countries in the region are now becoming importers of lumber and wood products (e.g. Thailand and China) as a result of the speed of economic development and the application of moratoriums on logging activities within their own countries (i.e.: Thailand). While the ‘developed world’ is still the main consumer of natural resources, sustainability cannot be achieved if developing countries do not participate in supporting such initiatives through also demanding ‘certification’ of imported lumber. Building a demand side for eco-labelling must extend beyond European borders and especially now into the Asian region. For eco-labelling to become effective in countering illegal logging activities and adopted by concessionaires, it must result in less financial burdens being placed upon the operations. Adoption of certification procedures will not be successful if there is only a reliance upon legal measures to introduce the approach, there must be financial incentives as well. While initial evidence from the one case of certification in Indonesia indicates that it does not create a burden on the producer, there is still a need to build incentives (and remove disincentives) at all levels. Ways and means of elaborating appropriate and acceptable premiums should be developed between governments, importers and FMUs.


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PART III - CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS

1. Conclusions

The project objectives (both development and specific) were met. Its quality outputs have contributed to building a base of trained personnel that led to increased capacity and capability of field assessors, Chain of Custody assessors, and expert panel members. Through the accreditation of an independent training institution, project activities have supported the ongoing development and refinement of training materials and curricula.

Through the inputs to build institutional capacity for SFM assurance, positive impacts at the national government level were achieved that supported the national forestry plan and contributed to strengthening government linkages to the international forestry community.

The socialization programmes were the first steps to address the gaps in coverage of the approach that need to involve a wider group of stakeholders in the certification process including NGOs and local governments.

The lack of direct involvement of local government in the process (while not part of the original project design) greatly inhibits the overall objective for achieving more sustainable forest management given the increase responsibility and authority of these units for natural resource management under the ongoing decentralization framework.

2. Recommendations While the preceding sections attempted to present a number of issues and identify a range of challenges that are proposed for further discussion, the following section presents a selection of what are believed to be the more important recommendations to help guide future co-operations and initiatives in this field: 2.1. Capacity Building: One of the keys to achieving more sustainable forest management practices is for LEI and any future co-operation to support the ongoing decentralization process. This means working towards focusing on integrating the certification process into local governance practices that are more participative and balanced in their development objectives. Integration of future capacity building activities should focus on the overall objective of formulating a “capacity building agenda” for sustainable forest management to support a wider group of beneficiaries and managers. Examples of this could include the following:

1. Using local planning and implementation approaches such as strategic planning/ strategy management for helping local governments set a balanced development direction that also integrates environmental and social components to the existing economic considerations and takes into account aspects of customers, organizational management and capacity building within the context of the certification process (see Figure 1: example of strategy map for SFM);

2. Work with national representatives to strengthen the monitoring system for local implementation of development initiatives (this would include establishing a clear national vision and framework for SFM);

3. Strengthen the management capacity of the Provincial Communication Forum to support the linkage from national policy to local implementation. Key aspects of the strategy management approach could be adapted for the forum to apply within its undertakings to support a more participative framework;

4. Building a stronger strategic partnership between government, civil society and the private sector is a long-term objective. This partnership needs to be initiated at the national level during the vision formulation stage in order to begin establishing common objectives and a means for structuring more transparency and accountability. With LEI’s proposed change to be a membership-based organization, it is recommended that LEI’s take this opportunity to provide the initial leadership and key forums for such partnerships to be established at the national, provincial and local levels within the target sites.


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2.2. Illegal Logging From the discussions during the course of the evaluation, reducing illegal logging requires a number of inputs of not only legal and technical aspects, but increasingly more to do with issues of governance. Part of the better governance issues would see LEI support certification, monitoring and other processes that are more participative in nature. Such involvement must move beyond ‘socialization’ training, and with support of ITTO and other agencies, actively support educational inputs and subsequent involvement of a wider group of stakeholders. In addition to the capacity building inputs recommended above, the follow points are proposed:

1. Actively promote the involvement of a wider range of stakeholders from the civil society in general, and more specifically from indigenous people’s groups as well as established NGOs active in this field. This participation must be not only be in the certification process, but also within the monitoring framework.

2. Within this context LEI also work to support national legislation that recognizes rights of ownership, and use and access by local communities for them to manage the forest. Concurrent with this is elaborating a process of awarding concessions that is transparent, participatory and equitable.

3. LEI with external support should review the balance between the professional assessors, the expert panel and certifying body to gain better co-ordination and mutual support. Through this co-ordination the intention would be to expand the body of knowledge and promote SFM in a co-ordinated manner.

4. LEI to adjust its mandate beyond addressing the private sector to provide service and support to all three sectors (see Fig. 2 illustrating the proposed expanded mandate for LEI)

5. Efforts are also needed to raise awareness not only in the local level where the logging activities are taking place, but also work within the domestic demand side such as the growing urban areas. The attempt should be made to build a wider support platform within the urban civil society that typically has more political and economic power.

2.3. Applicability of Certification and Eco-labelling System The most important task for eco-labelling is to find a balance between meeting local needs and context for acceptance by domestic producers while gaining global recognition of the standards used in order to gain acceptance by international consumers. The proposed phased approach offers one means of achieving this and represents an important step for LEI.

1. In this regard, it is recommended that LEI continue with elaborating a phased approach that will support its endeavours to increase certification and improve logging practices. In terms of gaining international acceptance LEI has two options it can follow:

Fig. 1: Example of Strategy Map of Certification and Eco-labelling for SFM

Consumers/ Customers Value to society, Local people’s satisfaction, Global acceptance

Certification & Eco-labelling System SPNFM - CoC - Plantation Forest - Community Based FM

Money & Finance Income generation, Proportion of budget,

Premium charged

Organizational Management Routine management, Project management, Legal enforcement, Organizational management, Participation: Civil society,

Producers, Assessors, LGUs, Experts, Certification bodies

Learning and Development – Capacity Building Knowledge & skills of personnel, Institutional development, Equipment & IT System, Culture of working


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Linking with an international standard as it is currently working towards through the phased approach and had previously attempted through the FSC; or

Seeking international acceptance for its own certification process;

2. As there appears to be some reluctance on the part of concessionaires to adopt the global standards in the short-term, it is recommended that LEI continue to find a suitable procedure within the Indonesian context as its first priority and focus on improving local practice while keeping in mind the market credibility;

3. Concurrent with the above point, there should be continued inputs of external expertise to strengthen the professional and technical expert base and maintain a flow of innovations and improve international networking in the field;

4. For certification to function, it needs more intensive participation of the indigenous people. To pursue this the following steps are recommended: Build closer co-operation with existing NGOs active in the field (e.g.: AMAN); Formulate specific training materials that strengthen the existing cultural linkages between these groups and the forest that recognizes the balance between livelihood and sustaining that livelihood; Bring in wider participation and capacity into existing structures (e.g.: Provincial Communication Forum).

5. To support the link between illegal logging and impact on culture, social scientists should trained and be part of the certification/ verification teams;

6. Within the context of decentralization, the framework of its activities should be increasingly focused on local government activities and inclusion of the local people to not only see the certification process for eco-labelling as it relates to illegal logging, but must be made integral partners promoting sustainable forestry. As noted in the capacity building recommendations, this could be pursued through incorporating strategic planning or strategy management approaches within its capacity building framework.

7. Organizations such as ITTO should increasingly support efforts to build demand for certified lumber products in the developing countries as some are now moving into the realm of being importers rather than exporters;

3. Future Considerations

There exist a number of opportunities and changing institutional circumstance that would permit LEI to build upon the accomplishments it has achieved to date and expand its mandate. With external support, there is the opportunity to more actively pursue sustainability of the forest resources involving a wider range of actors with specific focus on local government. The certification process should therefore be increasingly used to promote good governance by facilitating participation of more stakeholders, supporting greater transparency and accountability and work to foster equity among the stakeholders.

Government Local/ Provincial/

National

Civil Society Recipients

Producers Private Sector

Fig. 2: Proposed expanded mandate for LEI

L E I

Promoting good governance through the certification and eco-labelling process by facilitating participation, accountability and transparency to foster

sustainability and equity in society


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4. Acknowledgements The evaluator would like to make special recognition of the willing co-operation of the two Executive Directors and the Caretaker of LEI, its staff, assessors and expert panel and thank them for their hospitality, openness and availability to answer questions and supply the information and relevant materials. The constructive guidance to the evaluation process by the Assistant Director of Economic Information and Market Intelligence was valuable and highly appreciated.


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5. APPENDIX 5.1 List of documents reviewed:

Annual Report 2001, Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia.

Completion Report: Training Development on Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia, 2001

Financial Audit on the Training Development on Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia. Project of Indonesian Eco-labelling Institute (LEI). May 2001.

Financial Audit on the Training Development on Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia. Project of Indonesian Eco-labelling Institute (LEI). July 2000.

Forest Certification Progress in Indonesia 1999-2004.

Forest Certification Watch. No. 44 June 2004; No. 42 April 2004.

Forest Certification: Pending Challenges for Tropical Timber. ITTO, October 2002.

Preliminary Report on the Procedures for the Implementation of Phased Approaches to Certification in Tropical Timber Producing Countries. July 2004.

Project Progress Report: Training Development on Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia. August 15, 2000.

Report on the Potential Role of Phased Approaches to Certification in Tropical Timber Producing Countries as a Tool to Promote Sustainable Forest Management. October 2003.

Workplan: Training Development on Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia.

LEI Related Publications: LEI Standards

1. Framework for Sustainable Production Forests Management System (Series 5000)

2. Technical Document 01 and 02

3. Sustainable Production Forest Management (SPFM) Certification System (Series 99)

4. Resolution Guideline to Appeal against the Certification Decision (Standard 55)

LEI Guidelines (2000)

1. Requirement Guideline and Training Procedure of SPFM Certification Program (Series 99-10)

2. Timber Tracking Certification System (Series 88)

3. Training for Trainer’s on Forest Auditing Techniques Other Related Literature and References:

LEI Ecolabel News, First Edition (August-October 2000). Contact: Dr. Hiriadi Kartodihardjo, Deputy of Environmental Destruction Control, Bapedal, Faculty of Forestry, IPB

Forest Certification Watch TM, Editor: Johan Hedlund PO Box 48122, Montreal, QC. H2V 4S8, Canada. [email protected]

www.CertificationWatch.org. tel. 1 514 2735777 fax 1514277 4448

EU Forest Watch, published by Fern. www.fern.org; [email protected]


/ . . .

5.2 Itinerary for Field Visit to LEI Office, Bogor, Sept. 6-10, 2004.

EX-POST EVALUATION ITTO PROJECT PD 1/95 Training Development on Assessment of Sustainable Forest Management in Indonesia

6-11 June 2004

Date Time Activities Involved

parties/ person(s)

Remarks

06.09.04 Monday

11.25 Mr. P. Chamniern is arriving in Jakarta with TG 433 at 11.25

Hendi (Driver) Hendi will pick up Mr. P Chamniern from Soekarno Hatta Airport to Santika Hotel

06.09.04 Monday

19.00 – 21.00

Informal meeting – Welcome Dinner

1. Alan P 2. Aditya B 3. Daru

07.09.04 Tuesday

10.00-12.00 12.00-13.30 13.30-15.00 15.00-17.00 17.00

Session 1: Meeting with LEI Caretaker Team and Staff Lunch break Session 2: Meeting with LEI Caretaker and Staff Session 3: Documents Review of ITTO Project PD 1/95 Closing meeting

1. Alan P 2. Aditya B 3. Dwi Rahmad 4. Daru 5. Baroto 6. Yana

Meeting Agenda: 1. Opening meeting 2. Introductions 3. Presentation from ITTO representative 4. Presentation from LEI representative 5. Discussion 6. Presentation of ITTO Project PD 1/95 (CD Interactive) 7. Discussion 8. Review of: Proposal Project ITTO PD1/95; LEI’s Training System, Curricula, Syllaby, Modules, Manuals, Personnel Registration Body system, Database of : Assessors, Experts conducting Forest certification and CoC certification, Certification Bodies, PCFs in Indonesia, Field Verification methods, SNPFM system, CoC system, etc Meeting in LEI


/ . . .

Date Time Activities Involved parties/ person(s)

Remarks

08.09.04 Wednesday

09.30-12.00 12.00-13.30 13.30-17.00

Session 3: Meeting with former LEI Executive Directors Lunch Break Session 4 : Meeting with relevant persons to discuss several subjects that includes : 1. Former and present LEI

Project Officer for ITTO 2. Discussion 3. Recommendations and

follow up continuation the ITTO Project

Dr. Mubariq Ahmad, Presently WWF Executive Director (Indonesia) Dr. Dradjad Wibowo, Presently a Member of Indonesian Parliament

Meeting agenda: 1. Opening meeting 2. Introduction from participants 3. Discussion among ITTO and LEI Stakeholder Meeting in : Manggalawanabakti This meeting session will be arranged in accordance to their time availability.

Meeting : in several offices along the way

09.09.04 Thursday

09.30-12.00

Session 5: Meeting with LEI Assessors and Expert Panels

Certification Bodies 1. PT Mutuagung

Lestari 2. PT TUV 3. PT Sucofindo Assessors: 1. Dian Susanti, PT

TUV 2. Ahmad 3. Zaenal 4. Taufik Margani,

Mutuagung 5. Deni A.Novendi,

PT MAL Expert Panels: 1. Didik Suharjito,

Fahutar IPB 2. Sudaryanto, IPB 3. Bahruni, Fahutan

IPB 4. Tedy Rusulono,

IPB Forest management Unit : Diamond Raya Timber 1. Surya Agung Meeting NGOs:

AMAN and

Meeting Agenda: 1. Introductions 2. Discussion of

Forest Certification Activities

3. DRT Certification and Certification Under JCP

Meeting in LEI or one of CB’s office that available


/ . . .

Date Time Activities Involved parties/ person(s)

Remarks

.

WALHILEI Staff

10.09.04 Friday

09.30-11.00 11.00- 13.00 13.00-14.00 15.00 – 17.00

Session 6 : Meeting with concerned persons/parties Lunch Break Session 7 : Round up meeting with LEI staff and Caretakers Closing Meeting for all sessions

LEI’s experts: 1. Haryanto P.Putro, Fahutan IPB, 2. Buce Saleh, Fahutan IPB 3. Agus Setyarso, DFID LEI Staf and Caretakers

Meeting agenda : Discussion on Certification relevant issues and illegal logging Meeting in IPB Campus Discussion on Certification relevant issues and illegal logging . Meeting in LEI

11.09.04 Saturday

12.45 Mr. Paul Chamniern is leaving Jakarta to Bangkok with TG 434

Hendi Hendi will take Mr. Paul Chamniern to Soekarno Hatta Airport


/ . . .

5.3 List of Persons Met

September 7, LEI Staff Mr. Ditya Bayunanda, LEI Caretaker Mr. Daru Asycarya Manager, Accreditation and Certification Mr. Alan Purbawiyatna Mr. Dwi R. Mutaman Mr. Baroto M. Abimanyu Ms. Indra Ms. Yana

September 8, Dr. Mubariq Ahmad Executive Director, WWF Indonesia (Former LEI Executive Director) Dr. Ir. Dradjad H. Wibowo Member of Parliament (Former LEI Executive Director) Mr. Daru Asycarya Manager, Accreditation and Certification Mr. Baroto M. Abimanyu Mr. Ir. Hartono Chairman, Raw Material Division

Indonesian Furniture Industry and Handicraft Association Ms. Emila APHI, Mr. Budi APKINDO Mr. Trijoko Mulyono

September 9, Certification Bodies: PT Mutuagung Lestari PT TUV PT Sucofindo Assessors: Dian Susanti, PT TUV Ahmad Zaenal Taufik Margani, Mutuagung Deni A.Novendi, PT MAL Expert Panels: Didik Suharjito, Fahutar IPB Sudaryanto, IPB Bahruni, Fahutan IPB Tedy Rusulono, IPB Forest management Unit : Diamond Raya Timber Surya Agung Meeting NGOs: AMAN and WALHILEI Staff

September 10, 2004 LEI’s experts: Haryanto P.Putro, Fahutan IPB, Buce Saleh, Fahutan IPB Agus Setyarso, DFID LEI Staff and Caretakers

COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC INFORMATION 9 November 2004 … · AND MARKET INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE ON...

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