TFF hosts a delegation of Myanmar officials on a study tour …

In August 2017, TFF hosted a study tour to a FSC certified concession in Central Kalimantan for a delegation of 15 Myanmar officials. The visit was coordinated through TNC-Myanmar with Australian Government financial support.

There is a strong interest within the Myanmar forestry community to improve it’s forest management and to conform to international norms on legality and sustainability. This study tour involved high level officials from the Myanmar Forest Department, the Myanmar Timber Enterprise, and representatives of civil society organizations.

The FSC certified concession of PT Sarmeinto Parakantja Timber provided an outstanding case study for the group to learn about the practicalities of forest certification and what that means in terms of community engagement, biodiversity protection, as well as a wide range of assurances that sustainability of forest management is being achieved. Of particular interest was the company’s adoption of the MoEF’s bar code marking of logs and its ‘on-line’ log tracking system.

This is the third time in recent years that TFF has hosted study tours to Indonesian forest concessions for delegations from the Southeast Asia / Pacific region. In December 2012, a group of 15 foresters from the South Pacific nations of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea visited the concession of PT Sari Bumi Kusuma. The following year another group of 15 forestry officials visited the concession of PT Erna Djuliawati.