Jakarta, Ekuatorial – A few days before his inauguration, President-elect Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo announced four priority strategies to protect Indonesia’s natural resources and environment.

The keynote speech delivered by Anies Baswedan, his former spokesman during presidential election race, at a national conference held by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment or Walhi, in Jakarta, on Tuesday (14/10).

“First, there should be better management on natural resources and environment. It can be done by reviewing permits which have been issued and integrated in the One Map Policy,” said Baswedan citing on the policy which aimed to integrate all maps from all sectors in the country to produce just one map as the national reference.
By reviewing all permits and One Map Policy, he added, land conflicts and overlapping policies can be managed.

He cited 7,000 agrarian cases involving indigenous people with plantation, forestry and mining companies. As a result, Indonesia lost Rp30 trillion (US$ 2.4 million) from illegal logging, Rp 100 trillion (US$ 8.1 million) from illegal fishing, and more from mining sector. In addition, he said that 1.2 million hectares of lands degraded due to forest and land fires emitting more carbon dioxide pollution.

“Second strategy is recovery effort for 5.5 million critical lands in Indonesia also tackling land and forest fires,” he said. “The third, firm law enforcement and increase public’s participation. There will be an anti-mafia task force with direct responsible to the president,” he said.

The fourth, he added, was to fully protect forests, peatlands and coastal areas which could improve people’s livelihood.
Emmy Hafild, former Walhi director said that Indonesia’s environment was in the state of emergency with floods and forest fires occurring every year. To be able to save the environment, Hafild said that there must be interventions and strong policies coming from next administration.

“With a strong policy and environment institution, we can expect for problems to be solved,” she said. “Environment does not hinder national development but its destruction will delay development.” Januar Hakam.

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Forest management reform : a little reminder for elected Indonesian president, Jokowi

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