Proyek Bantuan Sertifikasi ITTO

In mid-2009, the Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) signed an agreement with the ITTO, launching a significant initiative to support the forest concession of PT Suka Jaya Makmur (SJM) to assist the forest certification process. Long term followers of TFF may recall that SJM was the company that first collaborated with TFF in 2003 under a USAID pilot project designed to test the feasibility of linking a specific forest management unit with a specific market outlet.

Funding support is being provided by the ITTO for this very focused initiative under an ITTO ‘Civil Society-Private Sector Partnership Program for Sustainable Forest Management and Certification’. The TFF-SJM proposal was the first selected out of a global ITTO solicitation for proposals.

SJM is a 171,340 ha concession belonging to the Alas Kusuma Group of companies. SJM becomes the second concession under this corporate ownership to pursue the goal of FSC certification after the successful certification by SmartWood of PT Sari Bumi Kusuma in 2007 with TFF assistance.

In SJM, the ITTO grant has funded a variety of certification related activities including legality audit, chain-of-custody, control wood risk assessment, RIL training and audit, social training, HCV related activities and FSC scoping.

SJM has advanced rapidly and has already undergone a full assessment against the FSC standard by Control Union Certifications. An assessment report is expected shortly and the overall anticipation is that FSC certification is well within reach.

A final report is now under preparation and will be presented to the ITTO shortly.