Arti Ekawati, Jakarta Globe 15 Feb 10;
As Indonesia looks for ways to meet its ambitious emissions-reduction targets, the Ministry of Forestry on Monday said it plans to issue a new regulation that would allow commercial forestry companies to plant crops such as palm oil in new concession areas.
The ministry said the “mixed forest” regulation was intended to help companies survive the current low timber prices and would enable them to grow biofuel crops to help alleviate the country’s energy shortage.
Environmental groups warned that the plan would accelerate deforestation, which contributes to global warming.
Hadi Daryanto, director general of forest production at the ministry, said the regulation would be issued soon and would only apply to forestry concessions granted after it took effect.
Indonesia has 36.8 million hectares of commercial forests, with the government holding another 44.3 million hectares available.
The regulation would stipulate that at least 49 percent of forest concessions in question be used for planting commercial forests, while up to 21 percent could be planted in crops. The remaining 30 percent would be set aside for conservation and the use of local communities.
A similar regulation was issued in 1999 but was withdrawn after many forestry companies planted more of their land in palm oil than permitted.
Hadi said he was optimistic that companies would adhere to the rules this time because the ministry had a much more sophisticated monitoring system.
Elfian Effendi, the executive director of Greenomics Indonesia, said the group opposed resurrecting the failed policy.
“The ministry will repeat the failure, since forestry companies will prefer to plant palm oil because it’s more profitable than planting commercial forests,” Elfian said.
Even without such a regulation many forestry companies had illegally planted palm oil in commercial forest areas, he said.
