Taking Stock: Assessing Progress in developing and implementing codes of Practice for forest harvesting in ASEAN member countries

Since the release of the Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific in 1999, most ASEAN Member Countries have developed and started to implement national codes of practice. Some challenges encountered in the process have been addressed. Others persist and require further action (Table 5).

Subject	Challenges and issues		Potential solutions		Suggested actions
Development of the national code of practice for forest harvesting	-	Lacking ownership (Indonesia)	-	Enhanced stakeholder participation	-	Revision of the national code (Indonesia and Myanmar)
	-	Weak adaptation to local conditions (Indonesia, Myanmar)	-	Review and test national codes	-	Standard setting and training on forest road construction and maintenance for all ASEAN Member Countries
	-	Road construction and maintenance remain inadequate throughout ASEAN	-	Properly define and enforce road standards for all ASEAN members
			-	Training
Capacity building	-	Weak communication and transfer of knowledge and technology	-	Step up training programmes	-	Establish national mobile training-of-trainers team
	-	Lack of qualified trainers	-	Raise awareness of trainers on specific aspects and the prevailing framework conditions in ASEAN Member Countries	-	Conduct national and sub- regional training-of-trainers courses for ASEAN Member Countries
					-	Develop appropriate curricula
Awareness raising	-	Lack of common understanding of development and implementation of national codes	-	Build common understanding	-	Conduct multilateral events: (1) Sub-regional/regional seminars/conferences on development and implementation of national codes, and (2) Study tours, especially to demonstration areas
	-	Lingering apprehension to change in the forest sector, notably to SFM	-	Involve more decision-makers and top management in development and implementation of national code and RIL promotion
Financial aspect	-	Limited information and sometimes contradictory information on financial aspects	-	Promote common criteria and indicators of Pan ASEAN	-	Intensify coordination and cooperation among ASEAN Member Countries on sharing data, information, and technologies
	-	Continuing perception of relatively higher cost of national code implementation	-	Conduct research on financial aspects under diverse conditions
	-	Lack of incentives
Monitoring and evaluation	-	Monitoring and evaluation mechanism of the implementation of national codes and RIL not in place	-	Promote common monitoring and evaluation systems	-	Establishment of ad hoc working group on monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of national codes and RIL in ASEAN Member Countries
					-	Create mechanisms to monitor and report the progress of the implementation of the codes of practice for forest harvesting and RIL

IV CHALLENGES, ISSUES, POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS AND SUGGESTED ACTIONS