about us

ARuPA, established in 1998, is a non-governmental organization based in Yogyakarta. ARuPA assists small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain certificates from Indonesian Ecolabelling Insititute (Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia, LEI) and Indonesia Timber Legality Verification System (System Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu, SVLK). ARuPA also provides trainings on community-based forest management to community forest farmers on the production of legal and sustainable timber.

Since 2006, ARuPA has assisted 21 community forest farmer groups in Central Java and 8 others in the Special Region of Yogyakarta to obtain certificates of timber legality and Community Based Forest Management.  ARuPA has also supported 7 small and medium-sized enterprises that produce legal and sustainable furniture and handicrafts. As part of a project supported by the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme, ARuPA has established this information portal to link buyers of legal and sustainable certified timber.

While community forest farmer groups are increasingly capable of producing legal and sustainable community timber, they are still faced with the challenge of marketing timber to certified industries. Meanwhile, at the downstream level, timber processers report that that wood raw materials are becoming difficult to obtain. Issues related to supply and demand are common problems faced by the parties (upstream [1] and downstream [2]). Through funding support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), specifically the FAO-EU Forest, Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme, an information portal for legal and sustainable timber trade was established called Woodenasia. The name is derived from two words combined, Wood and Asia, meaning wood originating from Asia, specifically Indonesia.

Woodenasia is a timber trade information platform in the form of a website containing information on timber forest products and their derivatives. This online platform aims to support legal and sustainable timber trade in Central Java Province and Yogyakarta Special Province. The involvement of a number of parties, namely farmer groups and community forest owners in Central Java and Yogyakarta Special Region, primary industry / sawmills, small and medium industries that have received SVLK certificates, has also enriched information on legal and sustainable timber trade.

The Woodenasia platform contains detailed information about the profiles of community forest farmer groups and industrial business profiles. Thus, the availability of community forest wood raw material stocks and industrial timber needs will be optimized on this platform, one of which serves as a space for information exchange related to timber trade. The ARuPA Association (Volunteer Alliance for Nature Saving) will run and administrate the website. [1] Upstream is an individual farmer and community forest farmer group capable of issuing administrative documents required by the SVLK legal framework. [2] Downstream is a sawmill and community wood processing industry that is SVLK certified / compliant with the rules for implementing SVLK certification.