This was clearly demonstrated at the recent ITTO Regional Workshop on Strengthening the Asia Forest Partnership, held in Yogyakarta August 30th - September 1st, which attracted 160 of the region’s leading forest experts and officials.

Key speakers at the event included the Director General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, Koes Saparjadi, on behalf of Indonesian’s Minister of Forestry, Dr. Muhamad Prakosa, and Japan’s Senior Vice Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr. Ichiro Ichikawa.

On the agenda were the region’s most pressing forest issues: combating illegal logging, controlling forest fires, and rehabilitating degraded forestlands. The workshop also offered members the opportunity to discuss the partnership’s organizational arrangements and future directions.

According to Nandang Prihadi, from Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, the workshop provided a very positive discussion forum for the representatives from 12 countries and governmental organizations, NGOs, universities, research organisations and the private sector.

“One of the key aims of the AFP initiative is to help ensue Asia’s tropical forests remain a viable source of raw materials and livelihoods for decades to come. To do this countries engaged in the international timber trade need to cooperate with each other,” Prihadi said.

While forest fire and forest rehabilitation were among some of the important issues examined, illegal logging dominated much of the discussion. A number of concrete actions to deal with illegal logging were addressed and some are already being implemented. According to CIFOR’s Takeshi Toma, who oversees the AFP information sharing secretariat, one of the most significant outcomes of the workshop was “the agreement to firstly identify existing legal measures regarding illegal logging and consider how these might be improved in importing countries to help better identify and prevent illegal timber imports.”

Workshop participants also agreed to do more to strengthen law enforcement on the ground. Key players in this area will be The Nature Conservancy and partners to the UK-Indonesia Memorandum of

Understanding on illegal logging, who will help develop activities to promote collaboration between customs agencies.

According to Toma, these efforts will focus on improving information sharing protocols and the exchange of experiences and lessons learnt between customs agencies.

As the AFP is still in its early stages, the workshop also looked closely at its own operating organizational arrangements and future directions, with the Government of Indonesia to submit a draft announcement further detailing AFP’s workings and organizational structure later this year.

The main outcomes of the workshop will be brought before the AFP 4 meeting in Tokyo, Japan from December 8th until December 10th this year. This yearly formal AFP meeting is the partnership's highest decision-making mechanism. NH, GC.

For more information visit AFP at: www.asiaforests.org. AFP also issues an occasional ‘Online up date’ providing the latest information about AFP’s activities and web page updates. To receive AFP's ‘Online up date’, email: afp@cgiar.org.