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Fri, May 25, 2012
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Forest Moratorium Too Harsh For Some, Too Weak for Others
Fidelis E Satriastanti | May 21, 2011

An illegal logger cuts down a tree in Central Kalimantan province. Despite the promise of trading carbon credits to preserve forest land, a Reuters investigation shows deep flaws in the government An illegal logger cuts down a tree in Central Kalimantan province. Despite the promise of trading carbon credits to preserve forest land, a Reuters investigation shows deep flaws in the government's handling of the program. (Reuters Photo)
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While forest activists were denouncing a government moratorium on new concession in forests as disappointing, a palm oil businessman on Friday said the regulation went too far and only created more uncertainty for businesses.

On Thursday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a presidential instruction ordering the Forestry Ministry, governors, and district heads to stop issuing new logging concession in primary forests and peatlands for the next two years.

But green activists said the moratorium was only applicable to only 64 million hectares of the country’s 132 million hectare forest coverage. And now Joko Supriyono, secretary general of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) bemoaned the fact the business world had not been consulted.

Joko said the moratorium included forested areas known as APL, which are forests that can be used for other purposes such as plantations or mining.

He said that the moratorium covered 3.6 million hectares of APL in primary forests and another 9.7 million hectares in peatland.Joko also lashed out at the moratorium for putting peatland off limits for new concessions.

“Now, all peatlands are banned for two years, including peatlands less than three meters deep that are currently allowed under a Ministry of Agriculture and presidential decision,” he said.

He added in neighboring Malaysia, palm oil plantations were permitted on peatland of any depth.

“It’s just too weird to have a moratorium on peatland.” 

Joko said the moratorium could generate further conflict because the definition of primary and secondary forest was not clear.

“In addition, the map attached to the moratorium will bring more dispute because it’s going to be a reference, even though there is a provincial spatial plan.” 

The spatial plan, he said differentiated between forest and plantation areas while the moratorium’s map did not.

The two year new permit moratorium will also affect palm oil expansion plans and cause job losses, he said. 

“We are targeting 600,000 hectares of expansion per year, but with the two year moratorium, we could lose at least 200,000 to 300,000 hectares,” he said, adding it would translate into losing 50,000 to 80,000 jobs and two million tons of production.

However, Muhammad Teguh Surya, head of climate justice at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the moratorium would be hard to implement in full because it did not involve two significant ministries, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Energy. 

“Those two ministries have a crucial role in deforestation practices,” Teguh said. “We think this was done deliberately so that palm oil and mining people can still convert natural forests in the name of profit.”