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akarta: Indonesia and the European Union (EU) finally signed a long-awaited Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday.

The signing of the FLEGT-VPA marks an end to six years of intensive negotiations and heated debates over technical issues of the agreement, which aims to halt the trading of illegal timber and ensure only verified timber and timber products from Indonesia can enter the EU.

'€œThe agreement demonstrates that both parties have zero tolerance for illegal logging and its associated trade, and reflects our commitment to promoting the trade of legally certified timber,'€ Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said in a press statement on Monday.

Indonesia is the first country in Asia to sign a FLEGT-VPA with the EU, and is by far the largest timber-exporting country to do so.

The EU is Indonesia'€™s second-biggest market for the latter'€™s forestry products at almost 10 percent, with the entire region of Asia contributing 75 percent.

Indonesia and the EU will now proceed to the ratification phase of the agreement for its full implementation.

This agreement describes a licensing system for timber products exported from Indonesia to any of the 28 EU member states, based on the Timber Legality Certification Scheme (SVLK) '€” the first national timber legality assurance system in the world to be implemented based on FLEGT principles.

The SVLK has been mandatory for forest concessions and industries since 2010 to smooth the entry of Indonesia'€™s forestry products into the EU.

In line with the SVLK implementation, the EU, since March, has also required that both importers and sellers ensure timber is legal, with exceptions for products having secured VPA licenses.