I BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The 7^th Meeting of the ASOF, held in May 2004, called on the ASEAN Secretariat to undertake, in collaboration with the FAO, a review of the development and implementation of codes of practice for forest harvesting in ASEAN Member Countries. The results of the review are presented in this report.

The objectives of the reviewwereto:

• analyse the current status of developing and implementing codes of practice for forest harvesting in ASEAN Member Countries;
• define ASEAN's role in the implementation of the Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific and national harvesting codes, and in the promotion of RIL for the next strategic planning period 2005- 2010; and
• assist ASEAN and the APFC in identifying areas of mutual concern and opportunities for future support.

FAO published the Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific in 1999¹. Since then, ASEAN Member Countries have developed national codes of practice and initiated programmes to implement their national codes and encourage the application of RIL. In several ASEAN Member Countries, except in Peninsular Malaysia, the Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific guided the preparation of national codes of practice.

Critical issues in the development and implementation of national codes of practice include:

• some national codes are not accepted and implemented by all stakeholders because they did not have the opportunity to participate in the development process of the documents.
• some national codes of practice are not sufficiently flexible to cater for differences in local conditions (e.g. terrain/topography, forest types, forest harvesting systems and socio-economic conditions).
• in several countries, political instability, weak law enforcement, illegal logging and illegal timber trade, and increased demand by wood industries have hampered the implementation of the national codes of practice.

Since 1999, the following countries have published and/or adopted national codes of practice:

• The Cambodian Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting, published by the Department of Forestry (DoF) and Wildlife, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Kingdom of Cambodia in 1999.
• The Principles and Practices of Forest Harvesting in Indonesia, published by Ministry of Forestry (MoF) of Indonesia in 2000.
• The National Code of Forest Harvesting Practices in Myanmar, published by MoF, Union of Myanmar in 2000.
• The National Code of Forest Harvesting Practices in Lao PDR, published by the DoF of Lao PDR in 2005.

Viet Nam is currently developing national codes for natural forests and plantations, respectively.

There continues to be confusion over the definition of the terms "national code", "guidelines" and "standard operational procedures". National codes of practice set out the broader forest-harvesting principles. They indicate "what should be done" but not necessarily "how things should be done". RIL guidelines, guidelines for road construction and watercourse crossing, and silvicultural prescriptions/guidelines for various forest types show "how things should be done" and thus guide the implementation of the provisions of codes of practice. Standard operational procedures are instructions to be followed in operating in a FMU.

¹The Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific was endorsed by the ASOF in 2001.