DEVELOPMENT OF CRITERIA AND INDICATORS FOR FOREST MANAGEMENT IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Initiatives in the formulation of a set of criteria and indicators as a yardstick to assess forest management in Peninsular Malaysia started in 1994 based on the ITTO Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management published in 1992. Consequently, a first draft of criteria and indicators known as Malaysian Criteria, Indicators, Activities and Management Specifications for Sustainable Forest Management was formulated.

As a cooperation programme under the Malaysia-The Netherlands Joint Working Group on Forestry, a pilot study on timber certification was carried out, starting in mid-1996. As a follow-up to the pilot study, several discussions were held in 1998 and 1999 between experts from The Netherlands and Malaysia to take into account the following developments and inputs:

• the adoption of the Dutch Minimum Requirements in The Netherlands;
• the adoption of the 1998 ITTO Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests in Malaysia; and
• the results of regional and national-level consultations among stakeholders in 1999 to formulate a national standard for forest management certification.

The output from these discussions was a document entitled Malaysian Criteria, Indicators, Activities and Standards of Performance (MC&I) for Forest Management Certification (Forest Management Unit Level), Peninsular Malaysia (Malaysia-The Netherlands Ad-Hoc Working Group) dated 23 December 1999. This document is also commonly known as MC&I (2001). In brief, the standards developed contain the followings:

The MC&I (2001) formulated has few weaknesses which needed improvement to enable it to become an overall standards for sustainable forest management. Many Non-Governmental Organisations have criticised that its provisions on environmental protection, ecology, social and conservation of biological diversity needed to be enhanced.

The initial draft of the MC&I(2002) was formulate separately for the three regions in Malaysia is to take into account the different economic, environmental and social conditions between the regions. The outcomes of the negotiations and discussion had subsequently adopted the MC&I (2002) as the document standard for forest management certification. In brief, the principles, criteria and indicators as well as the verifiers under the MC&I (2002) for Peninsular Malaysia are as follows:

To date, eight states in Peninsular Malaysia consists FMU Terengganu, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Kedah, Perak, Pahang, Selangor and Kelantan covering an area 4,588,821 million hectares of Permanent Reserved Forest has successfully being conferred the Forest Management Certificate by Certification Body(CB).

MC & I Certificate