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aving implemented the timber legality verification system (SVLK), Indonesia will be among the countries to enjoy the windfall from the surge in world timber prices by 2013, according to an official.

The SVLK was implemented last year in an effort to ensure that timber is not the product of illegal practices, or environmentally hazardous in its procurement.

Speaking in Surakarta, Central Java, Wednesday, co-director of the Multi-stakeholder Forestry Program (MFP), Achmad Edi Nugroho, said that by 2013, EU countries would implement the 2010 Forestry Law which will oblige importers and exporters to make sure that timber entering the EU is legal.

He said the implementation might result in the EU experiencing a shortage in supply.

“Indonesia will be able to fill the supply gap in timber in the EU market, and other parts of the world that are starting to implement eco-friendly and legally harvested timber,” he said.

He was in the city to help familiarize the Forestry Ministry’s 2009 decree and the SLVK.

SVLK was pioneered in 2003 and was later incorporated into the 2009 Forestry Ministry decree that provides standards and evaluation guidelines for production, forest management performance, and timber legality verification.

Among the primary and industrial forests that have received SLVK certificates are those in Blora and Wonosobo in Central Java, and in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta.

Edi said Indonesia was preparing to shift the timber industry from an upstream to downstream position to help them receive SVLK certificates.

He said the success achieved by the SLVK has prompted other Asian countries, including China, Malaysia and Vietnam, to learn from Indonesia.

Separately, Diah Rahayu of Kehati said that the SVLK would yield many advantages. Among other things, she said, these would include alleviating illegal logging practices, the creation of more professional forest management and law enforcement, and the promotion of legal timber products.