By Sonya Dyah Kusumadewi, BMRC Indonesia National Consultant and Krisdianto Sugiyanto, Co-Chair BMRC and Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia
As global expectations around sustainable trade and forest governance continue to evolve, the Broader Market Recognition Coalition (BMRC) strengthened its international engagement with the Like-Minded Countries (LMCs) Alliance last week. The LMCs are an alliance of 17 countries initiated by the Government of Indonesia to consolidate the collective voices of forestry and agricultural commodity-producing nations in support of trade diplomacy.
The Alliance includes Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, and Thailand.
The Government of Indonesia provides a platform for the LMCs, including regular training sessions for sustainable commodity production. This year, the capacity building programme is focussed on timber. The recent training series, held from June 22 to July 3, was on Capacity Building Training for Like Minded Countries: Sustainable Timber Commodity Management Based on Smallholder Farming. It included sessions on lessons learned from the Ministry of Forestry and other Indonesian stakeholders in the field of timber and forest governance, as well as a field visit to East Java to observe the timber industry and smallholder supply chains on the ground.
Introducing BMRC to the Like-Minded Countries Alliance
BMRC was invited to participate in the training event, where Sonya Kusumadewi, the National Consultant Indonesia for the BMRC Support Team, had the opportunity on behalf of Co-Chairs and the Support Team, to present to the LMCs the BMRC’s mission and current activities. The BMRC provided insights into the Coalition’s ongoing South-South initiatives around timber trade diplomacy through member-led activities and a pragmatic approach that combines more than a decade of experience from Indonesia and Ghana’s FLEGT VPA programmes.
Sonya presented a brief background on BMRC and discussed how the Coalition is advancing its activities and membership. The presentation highlighted the BMRC’s work in promoting national forestry systems and how market recognition can incentivize good forest governance among member countries.
Several audiences generally expressed an interest in learning more about the BMRC, particularly regarding how the Coalition can benefit and support their existing national efforts to establish and implement good forest governance. As the LMCs plan to advance trade diplomacy for various agricultural commodities alongside forestry, it is hoped that the BMRC presentation provided valuable lessons on how a South-South Coalition can be effectively organized.
The session also encouraged collaboration between the BMRC and the LMCs forum as aligned initiatives, particularly in timber and forest governance. Ultimately, the session concluded with an exchange of ideas on BMRC membership procedures and the various ways LMCs can participate prior to full membership, such as acting as observers or strategic partners.
The training series was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and the Centre for Transdisciplinary and Sustainability Sciences at IPB University (CTSS IPB University), with support from the Indonesia Agency for International Development (Indonesian Aid).
