Indonesia’s minister of forestry is to visit Singapore, Malaysia and China in a bid to stop them accepting illegal logs from his country.
The Indonesian government is trying to get as many countries as possible to sign memorandums of understanding to try to stamp out illegal log smuggling.
The Indonesian Wood Panel Association (Apkindo) has also complained about illegal log smuggling to Malaysia and China.
It said the two countries flooded the export market with cheaper plywood made from illegal logs from Indonesia.
For the first half of 2003, Indonesia’s plywood exports dropped to 2.7 million m3 from 3.2 million m3 in the same period last year.
Meanwhile Indonesian president Megawati Soekarnoputri has blamed the country’s illegal logging problems on rising international demand for wood.
Speaking at the 10th anniversary of the Centre for International Forestry Research, she also admitted her country was struggling to stop the illegal actitivies. She argued for a shift in perception so people viewed forests as needing protecting rather than exploiting.
An estimated 50.7 million m3 of illegal timber is produced annually, resulting in state losses of US$3.37bn.