Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) – The Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency (LEI) has set up cooperation with several other institutions to provide the furniture market with products and handicrafts made from wood taken from ecolabeled forests, a spokesman said.
Therefore, LEI as well as people`s forest management groups in Wonogiri district in Central Java and Gunungkidul district in Yogyakarta which already have ecolabel certificates along with the Indonesian Furniture and Handicraft Industry Association (Asmindo) had agreed to provide the furniture market with ecolabeled furniture and handicraft products, LEI`s communication manager Indra Setiawan said here Tuesday.
“Many furniture and handicraft industries keep on asking for products made from wood taken from forests which have obtained ecolabel certificates from LEI,” he said.
“Products which already have ecolabel certificates will enter the furniture and handicraft markets in the near future. After the Idul Fitri festivity, a store in Jakarta will have and sell furniture and handicraft products which were made from wood taken from forests in Gunungkidul and Wonogiri,” he said.
Realizing that Indonesian forests must be preserved, LEI began developing methods to manage forests in environment-friendly ways in 1994, he said.
“Ecolabel certificates will only be given to forest and forestry product management units which manage their forests through environment-friendly methods and allow local people to share the benefits of the forests,” he said.
An American Sustainable Furniture Council executive told a workshop in Jakarta last week that the US furniture and interior products market was now focusing its attention on products made of wood taken from environment-friendly and sustainable forests. The US furniture and interior product market was recorded at $84.2 billion last year
Formerly, Indonesian Furniture Association chairperson Ambar Tjahyono said the cost of ecolabel certification amounting to Rp100 million was still considered as hindrance to the progress of the ecolabel certification program.
She said at least 40 percent of Indonesia`s furniture and handicraft exports was obsorbed by the US, 45 percent by West Europe and 15 percent by East Europe and Australia.
Last year Indonesian furniture and handicraft exports reached a value of $2.4 billion, she said.
Ambar also said Indonesia`s furniture and handicraft industry needed about 10 million cubic meters of wood and was receiving a supply of 5.4 million cubic meters from state forestry firm PT Perhutani and 4.5 million cubic meters from public forests.(*)
