Indonesia: Activists urge Jokowi to renew forest-clearing ban

Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s moratorium on deforestation will soon come to an end
Kennial Caroline Laia Jakarta Globe 7 May 15;

JAKARTA — Environmental activists have called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to extend and strengthen a forest-clearing moratorium that runs out this month.

The moratorium on issuing permits to clear peat and primary forests was introduced on May 20, 2011, by then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and slated to run for only two years. Mr Yudhoyono extended it in 2013 on a temporary basis for a further two years, and activists say Mr Widodo now has the chance to make a lasting positive impact by giving the moratorium a firmer legal basis.

Any extension to the moratorium “must stipulate punitive measures for people or companies that violate it”, Mr Zenzi Suhadi, a forest campaigner for the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

“This is needed to curb (the illegal) issuance of licences for forest exploitation, whether for mining or for large-scale plantations,” he added.

He noted that the moratorium as enforced by the Yudhoyono administration was for all practical intents toothless, noting that the Forestry Ministry issued mining and agriculture concessions for 12 million ha of forest land, much of it ostensibly off-limits under the moratorium, between 2011 and last year.

“During this period, there was no punishment for the violators,” Mr Suhadi said. “The next moratorium should include punitive measures to ensure that no one hurts the environment.”

He also said it was important that the moratorium be supported by a new agency “to supervise its implementation as well as enforce the law”.

Mr Suhaidi urged the government to consider extending the moratorium period as a two-year moratorium is not as effective as expected.

The original moratorium was enacted as part of a deal that would see Norway provide up to US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) in funds for climate change mitigation projects in exchange for demonstrable protection on Indonesia’s part of high conservation value forests, including peat forests, which store enormous amounts of carbon dioxide.

As part of the agreement with Oslo, Jakarta agreed to set up a Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) management body. But the body was folded into in the Forestry and Environment Ministry in January, prompting critics to question Mr Widodo’s commitment to combat deforestation and climate change.

In the time since the moratorium went into force, nearly 970,000 ha of peat forest have been cleared, half of that total coming from the heavily logged Sumatran provinces of Riau and Jambi, showed a study by Walhi and environmental non-governmental organisation Kemitraan.

The study also found that in some regions, up to four-fifths of the primary and peat forests identified as off-limits for new concessions are already protected under prevailing zoning regulations, hence the moratorium is doing little to expand the scope of forest protection.

Progressive revisions have also seen the map of areas protected under the moratorium shrink, with dozens of concessions issued across the country for land that was at one point included in the moratorium map, says Mr Hasbi Berliani, Kemitraan’s programme manager for good governance.

“It is really crucial for the government to strengthen (a) few points in the moratorium to protect other areas (that) haven’t been included within. As long as the moratorium doesn’t include it, it’s useless,” Mr Berliani said.

Mr Suhadi echoed the sentiment, saying that what Indonesia really needed was not a moratorium on new concessions, but a termination programme for existing licences. “The situation is critical,” he said, noting that when the moratorium was renewed in 2013, it included new concessions for energy and food production, thanks to what he called corporate lobbying. “This cost the country 1.2 million ha.”

“This year, there’s the possibility of intervention from the biofuel and food lobbies, and exemptions for border regions,” Mr Suhadi added.

The Forestry and Environment Ministry says it wants to extend the moratorium as part of a wider programme to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 26 per cent by 2020, and has welcomed suggestions of environmental groups in drafting an extension. THE JAKARTA GLOBE