Protecting forests from illegal activities is not just one country's responsibility. It is a global responsibility. There would be no value in exporting illegal timber from a country if other countries refused to buy it.

Forests provide a vast range of invaluable benefits to human society, like timber production, climate stabilization, conservation of water, soil and biodiversity as well as carbon sequestration. But in spite of the valuable services that forests provide, deforestation and forest degradation have been progressing at an alarming rate in the Asian region.

No single country can be expected to bear the costs of conserving the forests within its borders for the future when the benefits from that forest will be shared by many other countries.

Illegal logging not only damages the environment but is also costs governments a severe loss in tax revenue that could be used for social services. It also weakens the rule of law. It is essential that producing and consuming countries cooperate to solve the problem, because it is not a problem producing countries can solve alone as there are so many actors and trans-national issues involved.

That is the reason for the recent formation of the Asia Forest Partnership (AFP), a coalition of governments, NGOs, industry and international agencies (see box).

"CIFOR is one of the four key players instrumental in establishing this partnership, along with The Nature Conservancy and the Governments of Indonesia and Japan," said CIFOR's Takeshi Toma. "The Asia Forest Partnership was a major outcome of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Although still in its embryonic stage, AFP promises exciting outcomes for the future. Its main aim is to promote sustainable forest management in Asia through a range of cooperative initiatives.”

These initiatives include good governance and forest law enforcement, developing capacity for effective forest management, combating illegal logging, controlling forest fires and rehabilitating and reforesting degraded lands. Measures that may get close attention under the partnership include monitoring forest harvesting through satellite imagery and implementing timber tracking systems and timber product certification schemes. AFP will also work with both industry and NGOs to make consumers more “environmentally aware” when buying timber products.

AFP held its second meeting in July in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, opened on behalf of Indonesia’s Minister for Forestry, Mohammed Prakosa, by Mr Wahjudi Wardjojo, the Ministry’s Secretary General. Mr Wahjudi said Indonesia saw as a regional forum that could provide structure and focus, and “set modalities for concrete action aimed at ensuring an end to forest destruction”. One of the key issues for Indonesia, said Wahjudi, is “to empower local people by providing opportunities to manage the forest on a sustainable basis.”

Also speaking at the opening was Mr Yoshiki Mine, Ambassador for the Global Environment from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Mine expressed his thanks to the Government of Indonesian and CIFOR for organizing such an important meeting and noted that Japan had recently “strengthened collaboration with CIFOR to make research on … policy options to control illegal logging.” Mr Mine concluded by saying forests remain in a vulnerable position and that the AFP needed to identify national and international solutions to the problems of forest fires, deforestation and illegal logging.

Crucial to AFP’s success will be the diversity of its multi-stakeholder structure. By representing all forestry players AFOP will be able to facilitate the sharing and exchanging of ideas and information, as well as coordinating activities.

“I sincerely hope that (AFP) can take full advantage of the strength of having diverse views among partners, while trying understand each other and to find the way to work together,” said Tatsuya Kajiya, Director General of Forestry Agency of Japan’s Private Forest Department. Mr Kajiya ex pressed his hope that all AFP participants would “try expanding the partnership to the broader population of the international community.”

The Government of Japan will host the “International Expert Meeting on the Development and Implementation of National Codes of Practice for Forest Harvesting on November 17, with the third meeting of the AFP to be held soon after.