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ollowing concerns over a flawed timber trade agreement between Indonesia and the European Union (EU), the Forestry Ministry said it would review its legal framework for timber standards in an effort to curb illegal logging linked to human right abuses.

'We are open to suggestions to improve the framework regarding timber standards, which has so far not included terms to protect the rights of indigenous peoples. We will review the standard for legal timber,' Forestry Ministry secretary general Hadi Daryanto said over the weekend.

On Thursday, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the Indonesian version of its recent report, 'The Dark Side of Green Growth: Human Rights Impacts of Weak Governance in Indonesia's Forestry Sector', regarding mismanagement in Indonesia's forestry sector.

HRW urged the government to improve the timber legality standard, saying that the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) signed with the EU in Brussels, Belgium, in September was not enough to curb illegal logging linked to rights abuses.

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

According to the HRW, the Indonesia-EU agreement, which requires Indonesian timber exported to EU countries to carry a certificate showing the timber has been procured according to standards, failed to address whether when harvesting the timber the exporters had violated the rights of indigenous peoples or engaged in corrupt practices, which are considered common in the forestry sector.

'The EU-Indonesia timber trade agreement should help combat illegal logging, but there is still a long road ahead before either side can claim to trade only in legal timber,' Joe Saunders, deputy program
director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

'Indonesia's certification process needs to be reformed to ensure that timber isn't taken from community lands without consent and adequate compensation.'

Along with Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), HRW submitted the report to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday.

The watchdog groups also alleged state losses of US$2 billion in the forestry sector in 2011, due to illegal logging, tax evasion and graft, only one year after the SVLK standards system had been made obligatory for every timber company.

Hadi with the Forestry Ministry said that the ministry was now working to follow up on corruption allegations that had been reported by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in March this year.

'We are currently drafting a government regulation that will require every company that clears land to pay compensation for the trees it cuts down. Each tree will be valued based on the market price, and revenue will be included in the state's non-tax income [PNBP],' he said. 'This is one of our efforts to lessen the moral hazard of land clearing.'

Hadi said that the effort to improve the legal framework regulating timber would start with the regional administrations, which issue permits to businesses to operate in forests.

'As we all know, the Constitutional Court had annulled the government's ownership of customary forests, and as a start we will encourage regional administrations to revoke business permits for any customary forests,' he said.

In May, the Constitutional Court scrapped the word 'state' from Article 1 of the 1999 Forestry Law, which says, 'Customary forests are state forests located in the areas of custom-based communities.' In theory, businesses that want to convert custom-based land must seek permission from the community first.

'However, annulling business permits also depends on bylaws issued by regional administrations. Up until now, no regional administration has issued such a bylaw regarding customary forests and the community's ownership of them,' he said.