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n behalf of WWF Global Forest & Trade Network - Indonesia (GFTN - Indonesia) members, in particular those operating near, or within, the area designated as the Heart of Borneo (HoB), on the island of Borneo, I would like to issue the following response to an article titled “Group Criticizes Global Forest Protection Effort”, printed in The Jakarta Post on July 26.

GFTN - Indonesia strongly and categorically disputes the findings and related conclusions that form the basis of the Global Witness (GW) report, particularly in the context that the WWF “greenwashes” companies that conduct natural forest management in Borneo.

Many of the assertions in the report are just plain wrong, or else are based on an incomplete understanding of the process and procedures the report attempts to critique.

For example, claims made in regards to the Malaysian company Ta Ann are both inaccurate and misleading.

Linking the company’s current forestry operations, which were sanctioned in 1999, with the HoB Declaration, which was signed by the governments of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia in 2007, shows a clear lack of understanding of the on-ground reality in the HoB — a lack of understanding that also brings in to question other assertions made in the GW report.

In contrast to the report allegations, Ta Ann has never been a forestry member of the GFTN.

The GFTN’s work with Ta Ann in Malaysia is confined to trade membership and is directly linked to two of its mills where constructive engagement with the company has led to marked improvement in chain of custody issues and high conservation value forest assessment within its existing concessions.

Neither of these advances would have been possible without the existence of the GFTN process and the willingness of the company to engage in that process.

Neither does the GFTN sanction illegal behaviour from within its membership — another erroneous claim made in the report. Assertions of illegal logging activity in the Heart of Borneo are not only incorrect, but they once again reflect poorly on the diligence with which the report’s authors have researched issues.

The 22-million-hectare area, as decreed under the HoB Declaration, is not one large protected area. Instead, it is a mosaic of conservation areas, forest and wildlife corridors and, most significantly, areas that have been designated for sustainable development — which can include logging, mining and palm oil production.

Indeed, as widely published on the WWF’s HoB websites and literature — currently 40 percent of the HoB area is under some form of concession or permit for natural resource use.

The challenge for the three government signatories of the Heart of Borneo Declaration, organizations such as the WWF and other partners, is creating the environment for sustainable development in these concession areas.

In response to the allegation that the GFTN processes are not transparent or difficult for third parties to call to account, this claim, too, strays from the truth.

Since the completion of a third-party independent review in 2007, the GFTN has worked hard on transparency issues. The program lists all participants on its website (www.gftn.panda.org/about_gftn/current_participants/) and has released a public information document that describes the scope of these relationships.

Balancing the “commercial in-confidence” needs of GFTN members with the equally strong desire for transparency in all its activities involving approximately 300 companies and 25 sovereign WWF offices is a responsibility the GFTN does not take lightly.

Anwar Purwoto
Director of Forest, Terrestrial Species and Fresh Water Program, WWF-Indonesa
Jakarta