Opening of Indonesia's Protected Forests Defended

Arti Ekawati & Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 2 Mar 10;

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Tuesday defended a presidential decision to open protected forests to development, saying only underground mining activities would be allowed, thus minimizing damage to the environment.

The regulation, which has reportedly been signed by the president, is yet to be issued, he said, adding that strict requirements will have to be met by companies before they are allowed to conduct underground mining.

“The regulation will only allow mining activities to operate under the forest areas. So this is not for open mining and hopefully will only bring a minimum impact to the ecosystem in protected forests,” said Zulkifli, adding that the regulation will be implemented soon.

He said the regulation would oblige companies to provide lands in exchange for their mining areas and strictly prohibited them from damaging the forests above ground.

“Because of the lack of regulations, most of the areas were being exploited without considering reforestation,” he said. “In addition, they will be obliged to pay taxes for operating mines under the protected forest.”

The underground mining regulation is one of two related to forest use that were to be finalized during the government’s first 100-days program.

Emil Salim, an adviser to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and a former cabinet member, said there were only 13 mining companies granted special exceptions to operate in protected forests areas, a holdover from former President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Emil said he was not aware of the underground-mining regulation but said such operations would only be suitable for geothermal activities.

“But this is still in discussion, because analysis on the technology to ensure minimum impact for protected forest areas would be needed,” he said. “It still needs more technology to make sure that the [geothermal] activities will not affect the forests’ function to absorb water in order to prevent erosion, floods or landslides.”

Meanwhile, Siti Maimunah, national coordinator of the Mining Advocacy Network, said the regulation did not deal with urgent issues concerning the sector.

“They don’t have to issue that kind of regulation to prevent more illegal mining [in protected forest areas] because the Law on Forestry already stipulates that open mining is prohibited in protected forest areas,” Siti said.

She said the regulation was only to legalize another form of mining, while the country’s main objective should be to put in order mining-permit issuances that have been led to illegal mining activities.

Indonesia Allows Mining, Other Projects In Forests
Muklis Ali, PlanetArk 2 Mar 10;

JAKARTA - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has signed a decree to allow projects including mining, power plants, transport and renewable energy deemed strategically important to take place in protected forests.

Yudhoyono has pledged to do more to cut through red tape and prevent overlapping regulations slowing down projects ranging from mining to toll roads in the resource-rich developing nation in his second term in office.

Increasing exploitation of mineral resources and speeding up infrastructure development is seen as key for boosting growth and creating jobs in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

But the decree, which was obtained by Reuters and came into effect on February 1, will anger green groups given Indonesia already has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world.

"The use of forest areas for development activities can be done for unavoidable strategic purposes," said the decree, which cited key development projects as including power plants, renewable energy, toll roads and train lines.

The decree said open-pit and underground mining could take place in production forests, which is a forest area that is considered neglected or abandoned after trees have been cut.

"In a protected forest, mining can be done through underground mining," the decree said.

The decree defined mining activities as including oil and gas, minerals, coal and geothermal.

Indonesia's state oil firm Pertamina has previously urged the forestry ministry to allow geothermal activities in protected forest as most of geothermal reserves are located in these areas.

There has frequently been confusion over whether companies can exploit resources in forest areas, with various ministries requiring permits.

Indonesia's forestry ministry recently asked Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc to submit a request to use land in a protected forest area, a ministry official said on Tuesday.

Freeport operates the huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua province. Grasberg has the world's largest recoverable reserves of copper and the largest gold reserves.

In 2004, Indonesia allowed 13 mining firms, including Freeport, to continue mining operations in Indonesia after the introduction of a law in 1999 which banned open-pit mining in forested areas.

Last month, Indonesian police temporarily shut the Jorong coal mine in Kalimantan operated by a unit of Thailand's top coal miner Banpu PCL over a land permitting problem.

Banpu said the closure would only have a slight impact on production at its Indonesian unit Indo Tambangraya Mega Tbk.

Indonesia has struggled to attract fresh investment into mining, as well as for developing new oil and gas fields, partly due to uncertain regulations and red tape.

Indonesia has previously said it expected mining investment to hit $2.5 billion this year, up from $1.81 billion in 2009, supported by greater certainty after the introduction of new mining regulations.

(Editing by Ed Davies)

Government legalizes conversion of protected forest areas
The Jakarta Post 3 Mar 10;

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 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.