Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 30 Nov 09;
Indonesia may no longer contain the world's third-largest expanse of forest after the government decided to remove communal forest from the map to end conflicts over the ownership status of forested land.
The decision was proposed during a workshop held by the Forestry Ministry to seek solutions to long-standing forest problems.
"It will give clear ownership status to communal forest," Hariadi Karodiharjo, a member of the National Forest Council, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Senior officials from the Forestry, Public Works, Energy and Mineral Resources and State Environment Ministries, local administrations and law experts attended the workshop held Thursday.
The Forestry Ministry said that as of 2006, half of the 31,864 villages in 15 provinces occupied forested land. The ministry did not specify the total area of communal forests.
"If a village converts about 10,000 million hectares, there remains at least 16 million hectares of communal forests," the director general of planology at the Forestry Ministry, Soetrisno, said.
Indonesia claimed to have 120 million hectares of forest, the world's third-largest rain forest after Brazil and the DR Congo.
Soetrisno warned population growth, high poverty rates and regional autonomy would remain serious threats to forest stewardship.
He voiced concern about the massive tracts of forest converted into plantations, particularly in South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan, adding that many plantations were in operation before the central government agreed to changes in provincial spatial planning laws.
In South Kalimantan, permits for plantations have been provided to 155,400 hectares, while Central Kalimantan has awarded licenses for 3.1 million hectares of plantation.
The workshop also discussed mining operations in forests.
"Many mining companies have secured permits from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry without informing the Forestry Ministry," Hariadi said.
The 1999 Forestry Law prohibits mining companies from operating open-pit mines in protected forests.
The Indonesian Mining Association has called on the government to revise the 1999 law and a 2004 presidential decree that allows only 13 firms to operate in protected forests.
Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan acknowledged the abundance of natural resources in protected areas that could not be exploited.
Padjajaran University environmental law expert, Asep Warlan Yusuf, suggested the government issue laws on natural resource management to help resolve overlapping forest use.
He said demands to revise the 1999 law were one-sided.
"The most effective way is to enact a natural resources law for all stakeholders to manage forests. It would minimize conflicts resulting from the commercial use of forested areas," he said.
