Training SMEs to comply with timber sector guidelines
Published on: Thursday, April 28, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has agreed to build the capacity of Sabah timber industry's Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to comply with the relevant Sabah Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) Principles and Supply Chain Control Requirements.The project, through the EU-FAO Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), will have two main outputs which are to train 30 SMEs in Sabah TLAS Principles and Supply Chain or Chain of Custody (CoC) Management Principles and to monitor, evaluate and raise awareness including the development of communication strategy for the industry which will include branding Sabah's timber to the international markets.Sabah Forestry Department Deputy Director (Forest Sector Planning) Frederick Kugan said this is part of preparation to support readiness to comply with the FLEGT-VPA.
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He said this in his speech on behalf of the director when opening an Awareness Workshop and Market Requirements On Timber Legality.The workshop was to coincide with the Inception Workshop on Sabah TLAS Outreach and Chain of Custody Capacity building Training, which is a project between the FAO and the department funded under the EU-FLEGT programme.The workshop was aimed at providing an overview and update on global trends and timber product legality requirements and need for a rigourous chain of custody system. It was attended by members from the timber industries, government agencies and NGOs.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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He said that Sabah remains committed to the implementation of the Sabah TLAS and will continue to improve it even though its total export to the EU is small. One of the improvements needed is on the requirement for a clear CoC.
