Govt legalizes conversion of protected forest areas
After nine years of delay, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono finally signed a regulation legalizing the conversion of protected and conservation forest areas for business purposes, a practice already deemed to be rampant in this country
The Jakarta Post | 03/03/2010
The government regulation signed on Jan. 22 took effect on Feb. 1 but many activists claim they were not involved in the discussions.
Article 36 of the regulation says the status of protected forest areas could be shifted into conservation and production forests.
“Conservation forest areas could also be changed into protected and/or production forest,” it says. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan has vaunted his ministry’s success in finishing the regulation in his 100-day program.
The regulation says the shift of forests was made to give more space for development of infrastructures for the sake for public welfare.
It also allows for a land swap system for the firms to substitute each hectare they take in the production forests with other areas. The licenses to change the status of a forest would be issued by Forestry Ministry based requests by local administrations.
Article 50 says the forestry minister could withdraw the permits if holders began working in protected areas before getting the license.
“Withdrawing the license is not enough. The ministry should take stern legal action in line with the forestry law,” executive director of Greenomics Indonesia Elfian Effendi said.
He warned that the release of forest areas could only be done in the convertible production forests. “If the forest coverage is less than 30 percent, its status cannot be changed,” he said.
Massive forest conversion is currently regulated under ministerial decree. The 1999 Forestry Law requires the change of a forest’s status should be made through government regulation.
Greenpeace Indonesia warned the government against the new regulation, saying it will further accelerate forest damage in the country if unsupervised.
“It is dangerous to change the protected status of a forest if there is no clear explanation as to the kind of business activities that would take place in the area. There would be mix interpretations,”
Public outreach coordinator of Greenpeace, Joko Arif said.
He warned that the regulation would open loopholes for forest conversion including on oil palm plantations.
Indonesia is home to 120 million hectares of rainforest, making it the third-largest rainforest country after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The deforestation rate in Indonesia — claimed to be the world’s worst, with an area the size of Switzerland lost every year — has already cleared 59 million hectares of forests. Indonesia is home to 120 million hectares of rainforest.
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