Held during the week of 17 Nov 2025, the inaugural FSC Asia-Pacific Business Encounter, helmed by the FSC APAC Regional Market Development team, highlighted the intricacies of trade, sourcing, and the value chain within the Natural Tropical Timber industry. This event builds on FSC Asia-Pacific’s regional mandate and Change Agent Series which curates a critical dialogue platform aimed at fostering responsible sourcing commitments aligned with global demand and local supply.
Key Highlights:
- Commodity-Focused Dialogue Platform: Facilitating targeted discussions and business matchmaking to address pressing issues and opportunities within the timber trade landscape.
- Exclusive Participation: Gathering key stakeholders, including industry leaders, civil society and policymakers, to collaborate on sustainable timber sourcing solutions.
- Indonesia’s Role: Emphasizing Indonesia's pivotal position and strategies in advancing responsible timber sourcing and trade practices.
- Trade Advantages: Exploring the benefits and potential of responsibly sourced timber in enhancing trade dynamics.
Government representatives, industry associations, NGOs, suppliers, buyers, and FSC staff from national, regional, and international offices convened in Jakarta, Indonesia, to discuss the challenges of transparency, regulation, supply and demand challenges linked to natural tropical forest. Attendees included global buyers: Rayard, Tikamoon, Timbrian, Tuindeco, Felix/Forestia Group among others. There were also thirteen tropical timber suppliers and sawmills present for the business matchmaking event. The Chamber of Commerce and Trade of Indonesia (KADIN), WWF Indonesia, and Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN/TNC), ADM Capital also attended the event showing their strong support for FSC’s work in the concessions. Participants from association and NGOs emphasized that maintaining and expanding FSC-certified natural forests is essential for maintaining economic needs while long-term forest conservation.
The central theme focused on revitalizing the economic importance of responsibly managed natural tropical forests, which continue to face a decline in concession areas. Among several contributing factors, the lack of sustainable markets was highlighted as a major challenge. Participants presented evidence-based data showing a steady reduction in natural forest concessions. This trend is alarming and increases the risk of forest loss and conversion to other land uses. Several bottlenecks were identified, such as high taxation (up to 40% on logs from natural forests), export restrictions, and other regulatory barriers.
“Without reinforcing the economic value of natural forests, the sustainable future of natural forests will be at risk” ~Prak Ewan Sudaryanto, Director of Forest Product Processing and Marketing in Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
“Revitalizing the natural forest economy is essential to maintain natural forests.” ~Lieske van Santen, Global Network Unit Director for FSC International
Following the business matchmaking event in Jakarta, selected participants travelled to Eastern Kalimantan to visit a natural forest concession close to Tanjung Redeb managed by. Pt. Sumalindo Lestari Jaya. The field visit curated by the FSC regional and Indonesia teams demonstrated how local nuances of natural tropical timber production and forest management in remote geographies. The visit included concession areas, nursery, sawmills and management facilities showcasing to buyers the whole chain of custody for their demand. It also gave a strong message: FSC ensures that forests are managed responsibly, balancing economic benefits with the protection of high conservation values and local social needs.
For the Market Development team at FSC Asia Pacific this event reinforced the importance of collaborative efforts to align global demand with sustainable local supply practices, ultimately promoting environmental stewardship and economic growth within the timber industry. We hope to keep the momentum of linking global demand to local supply in complex sectors like natural tropical timber, bringing in new certificate holders to FSC, but also building a strong case for increasing areas under FSC FM.
The weeklong engagement has been highly appreciated by industry groups on the production, processing and demand side as it brings relevance and anchor for FSC's market development work led by the Asia-Pacific region on certified tropical timber.
💡To explore more business matching opportunities, please contact Neha Simlai at n.simlai@fsc.org