Enviro News Asia, Guangzhou — Indonesia reaffirmed its leadership in combating illegal logging and strengthening legal timber trade by optimizing the Timber Legality Verification System (SVLK) and advancing an integrated law enforcement approach during the 29th Meeting of the APEC Experts Group on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (EGILAT). The meeting took place on February 4–5, 2026, in Guangzhou, China, as part of the APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting 1 and Related Meetings.
Head of the Indonesian Forestry Ministry delegation to APEC-EGILAT, Krisdianto, stated that SVLK serves as a strong preventive instrument to ensure the legality and traceability of timber supply chains from upstream to downstream. He emphasized that preventive measures must be reinforced by consistent and firm law enforcement.
“Indonesia positions SVLK as the main foundation for ensuring legality and supply chain transparency. Its effectiveness increases when supported by consistent law enforcement, leaving no room for forest crimes while providing certainty for compliant businesses,” Krisdianto said during the forum.
Indonesia also encouraged stronger technical cooperation among APEC economies to harmonize minimum evidence requirements and enhance information exchange. Such alignment is expected to facilitate legal timber trade while narrowing opportunities for illegal practices. The country highlighted the importance of collaboration among governments, businesses, and trading partners to maintain supply chain integrity and strengthen global market trust.
As part of law enforcement strengthening, Indonesia shared its experience in applying the follow-the-money approach through money laundering cases linked to forestry crimes in 2021. The approach focuses on tracing financial flows and recovering assets to eliminate economic incentives behind forest crimes and enhance deterrence effects.
“The follow-the-money approach has proven effective in cutting off the economic incentives of forestry crimes. It not only targets field-level offenders but also disrupts financial flows and optimizes asset recovery,” Krisdianto explained.
Indonesia’s commitment received positive recognition from the forum. EGILAT Chair Ms. Anna Tyler expressed appreciation for Indonesia’s contribution in sharing best practices on compliance and enforcement.
“I appreciate Indonesia for voluntarily sharing information on compliance and prosecution efforts. This enriches collective learning and encourages other economies to address illegal logging more effectively,” the Chair said.
Indonesia welcomed the opportunity to share its experience at EGILAT 29 and reaffirmed its readiness to strengthen knowledge exchange, capacity building, and targeted operational cooperation. These efforts form part of Indonesia’s broader commitment to enhancing governance, traceability, and law enforcement in support of legal, sustainable, and high-integrity forest product trade across the Asia-Pacific region. (*)
