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Indonesia's Forestry Freeze Plan is Still on Ice
Fidelis E. Satriastanti | January 05, 2011

An illegal logging site in Riau. The more stringent 2009 Environmental Management and Protection Law became fully effective on Monday. (Antara Photo/FB Anggoro) An illegal logging site in Riau. The more stringent 2009 Environmental Management and Protection Law became fully effective on Monday. (Antara Photo/FB Anggoro)
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Despite repeated setbacks for a long-awaited moratorium on new forestry concessions, the Forestry Ministry is still arguing over the details of the plan.

Hadi Daryanto, the ministry’s director general of forestry management, insisted on Tuesday that it should be in charge of implementing the freeze.

“The Forestry Ministry will be most effective because the ministry has the authority over forest lands, whether they are for mining activities or for plantations,” he said. “If there are others involved, then it would only create more red tape.”

Hadi said the minister of forestry and district heads were responsible for granting permits, while governors could only give recommendations.

The two-year moratorium on new concessions in peat lands and primary forests was agreed to by Indonesia as part of a $1 billion deal with Norway. The funding was meant for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD-Plus) schemes, which had initially been scheduled to begin on Jan. 1.

But President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has yet to issue an instruction on the moratorium and at least two substantially different drafts of the moratorium exist, one prepared by the Forestry Ministry and the other by the national REDD-Plus task force.

The task force’s draft text was more specific about the types of permits that would no longer be issued, including those for logging, land lease, plantations and mining.

The Forestry Ministry’s draft, by contrast, only states that the moratorium applies to “new conversion permits for primary forests and peat lands for two years, starting Jan. 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2012.”

The task force’s draft also details specific instructions for the ministries of forestry and energy and mineral resources, National Land Agency (BPN), National REDD Agency, governors and district heads to cease granting permits related to the management of primary and secondary forests.

The Forestry Ministry’s version only issues this instruction to the Home Affairs Ministry, governors and district heads.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan, meanwhile, said there were still plenty of drafts regarding the moratorium and they were all up for discussion. “The drafts are still being discussed at the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy,” he said. “I have already said that there was a January 1, 2011, deadline, but, as we are still discussing it, I don’t know when it will be issued. I am still hoping that it will be this month.”

Commenting on the competing drafts, Hadi, who is also a member of the task force, said there were few differences because the task force’s draft was derived from the ministry’s.

“There are no differences between them, the task force only added their input to our draft, including to add the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and National Land Agency into the presidential instruction,” he said, adding that he did not know if the task force’s draft had already been submitted to the president.

The next stage in the process is for the drafts on the moratorium to be discussed at the cabinet level.