The European Union (EU) wishes to hold negotiations on the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VP) to fight illegal logging as soon as possible with the main wood producing countries like Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The EU plans to hold negotiations with over 20 wood producing countries in Asia and Africa up to 2010, Dr.Hadi Daryanto of the Forestry Ministry said here recently at a workshop on Law Enforcement, Management and Trade in Forestry Sector.

The VPA is a bilateral voluntary agreement between wood producing countries and the EU to combat illegal logging and the trade of illegal wood all over the world, including log thefts in Indonesian forests.

This voluntary agreement offers an approach to the negotiation and formulation of a mechanism for verifying wood legality so as to ensure that wood/wood products supplied to the European Union are equipped with permits issued by the VPA member countries.

The European Union will refuse to receive unidentified wood/wood products, which may be illegally obtained by the suppliers, In the first stage, this scheme will be made effective for the supply of logs, sawn timber, plywood and veneer, according to Daryanto.

A series of consultations and dialogs on the scheme have been held with related circles in the Forestry Ministry, the Trade Ministry, the Industry Ministry and the Home Ministry as well as experts and those representing forest and wood business organizations and civil society organizations, including NGOs.

VPA consultant Alexander Hinrick hopes that many more countries will participate in the VPA so as to intensify the struggle to curb the supply of illegal wood in the world.

Secretary General of the Forestry Ministry Boen Purnama disclosed, meanwhile, that Indonesia has no longer exported logs, but sells logs which have been locally processed into wood products.

Most of Indonesian supply of wood products like plywood, veneer, lumber, particleboard, pulp and paper goes to Japan, and the rest enters Europe, the United States and the Middle East.