Legal Timber Certificates (SVLK, EUDR) — What They Mean for You

SVLK, EUDR, FLEGT — when buying teak furniture, it's easy to dismiss these acronyms as bureaucratic noise. Yet they are exactly what separates an honest piece of furniture from illegally logged timber. We explain them in plain language, because as an importer we take these obligations on ourselves — and we want you to know what to ask any seller, not just us.

SVLK — Indonesia's proof of legality

SVLK is Indonesia's timber legality verification system, mandatory since 2009. What's more, in 2016 Indonesia became the first — and to this day the only — country in the world to issue FLEGT licences recognised by the European Union. In practice, this means timber with these papers has passed a chain of controls from forest to sawmill and automatically meets EU requirements — it does not come from illegal, predatory logging.

For you as a buyer, SVLK is the simplest signal: this wood has a documented, legal origin. Much of the finest teak comes from Java, from plantations managed for generations — as we describe in our piece on Jepara, the teak furniture capital.

EUDR — the new EU regulation

The EUDR (the EU Deforestation Regulation) is a newer piece of European law. It requires importers to demonstrate that a product has not contributed to deforestation — through due diligence and geolocation data on where the raw material was harvested. In other words: the importer must be able to point to the exact place the wood came from.

This applies to us directly as importers — which is why we collect the relevant data from suppliers at the workshop-selection stage. For you, it means peace of mind: you're buying from someone who knows where their wood came from.

What this means when you buy

• Ask about origin. An honest seller can tell you where the wood is from and whether it carries SVLK documents. "No idea, it's imported" is a warning sign.
• Legality isn't the same as quality — but the two go hand in hand. A workshop that keeps its paperwork in order usually keeps its craft in order too.
• A price has a provenance. Very cheap "teak" with no papers is usually either a cheaper substitute or wood of unknown origin.

The same transparency principle — who, where, from what — returns in our guide to recognising genuine Balinese handicraft. Timber documents are simply that principle written in official language.