SVLK

SVLK

Since 2009, Indonesia has implemented a policy concerning timber legality in the harvesting, the circulation, and the trade for more than a decade. The objective of this policy is to achieve a sustainable production forest management, good governance implementation, and illegal logging eradication and also the trade. The policy is in the form of the Ministerial Regulation of Forestry and Environment (LHK) which well-known as SVLK or Timber Legality Verification System mandatorily has to be applied by timber and forestry entrepreneur. Within that one decade this regulation has been revised 7 times by the Government. The last revision is the issuance of Permen LHK 8/2021 contains 911 pages and covers many forestry issues, included SVLK. In the Permen, the abbreviation of SVLK has changed from Timber Legality Verification System into Sustainable and Legal Verification System.

This Indonesian initiative is the response of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) or law enforcement, governance, forestry field trade, that is European Union’s policy which was announced in 2003. This policy is about certain legality requirements for timber and timber products which enter Europe countries. The timber origin countries which want to agree this policy for the product is able to enter Europe, must obey Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA). Indonesia has started to negotiate VPA with European Union since 2007, and signed the agrement in 2013. Based on the agreement, in 2016, Indonesia became the first country in the world which received FLEGT license. With FLEGT license, the Indonesian timber products are assured to be able to pass through green-lane to enter import market in European Union countries member because has met European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR). Other fourteen tropical timber producers countries are now deloping national system to assure the legality under FLEGT mechanism. As part of this mechanism, exporter countries must apply stages to prevent illegal logging.

Back to back, in 2009, the Indonesian government has issued a regulation about SVLK which is revised several times until now. Before 2009, long process is begun to talk about this regulation. Many

stakeholders are participated: government, timber entrepreneur, NGO, competent institutions on preparing the standard, academics, business association, and community. The process is also supported by world donor agencies. In every regulation about SVLK since 2009 until the latest, Independent Monitors and monitoring activity are always inseparable part. Permen LHK 8/2021 contains 5 chapters concerning Independent Monitors. Chapter 244 paragraph 2 mentions ‘Monitoring is carried out towards public services in SVLK field as a form of accountability, credibility, and integrity’. So, beside multistakeholders process, to accountability, credibility, and integrity from this legality verification, so it needs a monitoring, since from formalization, standarization, audit, and labelling stages. According to Setyowati and McDermott (2016), those 4 key stages have created unique synthesis between the state authority and market demand to name which timber and timber production that is declared legal and which timber that does not meet the standard, audit which carries out by timber legality verification bodies, and the issuance of V-legal. According to Setyowati dan McDermott, the problem is about the local community rights and about corruption which still needs to be reformed. WALHI (Friend of Eart Indonesia) used to say that the cause of illegal logging is corruption. Therefore, how far the implementation of SVLK depends on how far the monitoring conducted and able to improve SVLK itself.