03/02/2024 (Antara News), Jakarta - Indonesia has expressed the hope that the implementation of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will be delayed for the sake of plantation smallholders.

In a statement received here on Saturday, expert staff at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Musdhalifah Machmud, said that the Indonesian government is hoping for a concrete solution from the Ad Hoc Joint Task Force (JTF), such as delayed EUDR implementation.

This hope was conveyed during the 2nd meeting of the Ad Hoc JTF on the EUDR, which was held on February 2, 2024, in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Machmud called for mutual understanding and respect and said that the Indonesian government hoped that the European Union would understand the request for delay and consider the sustainability efforts that it has made to date.

She added that the Indonesian government has stressed that it is adhering to sustainability principles based on its regulations and the Common but Differentiated Responsibility and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) principle.

Meanwhile, director of green diplomacy and multilateralism at the European Commission (EC), Astrid Schomaker, reaffirmed the EU's commitment to work with Indonesia and Malaysia to ensure smooth EUDR implementation.

The EC assured that it will cooperate with Indonesia and Malaysia to ensure that smallholders in all relevant commodity sectors remain in the deforestation-free supply chains.

The EC welcomed the commitment of the two countries to develop a rigorous tracking system and strengthen their certification systems, and said it looked forward to discussing forest mapping to develop a national forest map based on the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO's) definition of forests.

The second meeting of the Ad Hoc JTF was held six months after the first meeting on August 4, 2023, in Jakarta, Indonesia. The results of the meeting will serve as inputs for the third meeting scheduled in Brussels, Belgium, in September 2024.

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