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It appears the Ministry of Forestry is playing Catch 22 with the country’s forests. Despite guarantees by the ministry on Monday that mining was forbidden in conservation areas, two recent regulations may have opened a back door to mining in those areas.

On Jan. 21, the government issued the Procedures for Forest Conversion regulation allowing conservation areas (including protected forests) and production forests to be converted to other functions. This means that conservation areas could be converted to either protected or production forests.

Based on the 1999 Law on Forestry, forest functions are divided into conservation, protection and forestry-production purposes, with a percentage of the latter allowed for other non-forest activities, such as plantations.

On Feb. 1, another government regulation on Forest Area Use stipulated that protected and production forest areas can be used in the development of non-forestry activities that are categorized in the regulation as “activities inevitably tied to strategic goals.” That includes mining.

This regulation states that mining companies can now operate inside protected forest areas although only under restricted circumstances. For instance, underground mining is allowed but not open-pit mining and mining would not be allowed if it could cause land subsidence, change the function of the forested area or contaminate ground water.

However, in production forests, the regulation allows for both open-pit and underground mining.

“The [Forest Area Use] regulation only applies to [activities in] production and protected forests, but not for conservation areas. It has already been stipulated in the [1999 Forestry] Law that these areas cannot be used for mining activities,” said Bambang Mulyo, head of forest use subdirectorate at the forestry ministry’s planning directorate general.

However, if, as stated in the Forest Conversion regulation, conservation areas can be converted into protected or production functions, then the way, albeit indirectly, would be open to mining in those areas.

But Bambang denied the regulation could be used to convert conservation forests into mining concessions.

“There is little chance of irregularities whereby companies could end up trying to change conservation areas into mining sites,” Bambang said.

Markus Ratriyono, spokesman for Forest Watch Indonesia, said conservation areas were established to protect them from being destroyed by any human activity.

“The law is clear that there should not be any mining activities, even underground mining, in conservation areas,” said Markus. “However, because underground mining has never been really implemented in Indonesia, I’m not certain how it would effect the environment. There would eventually be some damage, I’m just not sure of the extent of the damage.”

The Forest Area Use regulation has been criticized by environmental groups, who said that despite the Forestry Ministry’s stated objective to control open-pit mining, the new regulation could backfire and lead to the destruction of more forests.