ส.อ.ท. เข้าร่วมงาน “ชวนคิดชวนคุยเรื่องแผนที่ป่าไม้ของประเทศไทย เพื่อตอบโจทย์ EUDR”FTI Participates in the Event “Discussing Thailand's Forestry Map in Response to EUDR”

On Friday, September 13, 2024, Mr. Thanarak Phongphetra, Chairman of the Agricultural Industry Institute (AI) of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), along with Mr. Ping Sun Wang, Honorary Chairman of the Plywood, Wood Panel, and Material Industry Group, Mr. Thanun Unkhomol, Vice Chairman of the Furniture Industry Group, Dr. Jangkrit Kanatharana, Deputy Director-General of FTI, representing the Pulp and Paper Industry Group, representatives from the Innovation Institute for Industry, and officials from AI, attended the event “Discussing Thailand's Forestry Map in Response to EUDR” at Meeting Room M506, 5th Floor, MTEC Building, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand Science Park, Pathum Thani, and via online platform.

The event was organized by the Bureau of International Agriculture, Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), and the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). The event featured remarks by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Termsak Srikirin, Director of MTEC, and Mr. Thanarak Phongphetra, Vice Chairman of FTI, who welcomed the attendees, followed by Dr. Vanida Kamnoetphet, Director of the Bureau of International Agriculture, who opened the meeting. The purpose of this event was to understand the needs of the industry in preparing for compliance with the EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation), a legislation regarding the import of goods contributing to deforestation, and to track the status and specifics of the Forest Map data currently related to EUDR, including the sources of the data and its various layers, as well as to coordinate collaboration with related agencies in utilizing the information for the purpose of verifying the forest areas in Thailand, in preparation for the Due Diligence Statement as stipulated by the EUDR.

Additionally, the meeting included presentations from representatives of relevant agencies on various topics, such as Expectations of EUDR, Thailand's response to EUDR (from various EU-funded projects), and information about EU Support that assists Thailand in complying with EUDR (Representative from the Delegation of the European Union to Thailand), the industry's readiness to prepare for EUDR (Representative from FTI), the status and preparations to comply with EUDR in international trade (Representative from the Ministry of Commerce), the status and details of the comprehensive system preparations of the Rubber Authority of Thailand to address EUDR (Representative from the Rubber Authority), the status and details regarding the Forest Map data from the relevant agency (especially the eTree platform and the data from 2020, the reference year for EUDR) (Representative from the Department of Forestry), the status and details of the “Thailand Forest Monitoring System,” alongside other related EUDR matters (Representative from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency), and the status and details of the information relevant to One Map used to support EUDR as well as the details of the “Project on Data Preparation for Monitoring Land Utilization for Community Agriculture (Land Reform) to Develop a Spatial Database using Geo Informatics Technology” (Representative from the Office of the National Land Policy Commission).

Moreover, participants both onsite and online were given the opportunity to express their opinions and provide suggestions to contribute to the discussion on the Thai Legal Forest Map to support EUDR and related issues, serving as a guideline for future collaborative efforts.