Jakarta, Ekuatorial – Green activists on Thursday (26/3) demanded President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo administration to extend forest moratorium but with some additional requirements.
The moratorium, announced during then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration in 2011, halts permit issuance for primary forests and peatlands in the country in pursuit for better forestry management.
During his visit to Sei Tohor, in Riau, on November 2014, President Jokowi had promised to extend the moratorium which will be expired in May 13, 2015. However, civil societies have stated that they have yet to see any signs from the government in extending the regulation.
“If only extend the moratorium, without any added values, without strict law enforcement, then it will lose its spirit [for better forest management],” said Teguh Surya, forest campaigner of Greenpeace Indonesia, in a press conference, in Jakarta.
Surya underlined the importance of reviewing existing permits to be included in the upcoming regulation.
“We have yet to calculate on lost and benefit on the implementation of moratorium,” he said. “However, after moratorium being implemented but with no strict law enforcement and monitoring, Riau has lost Rp 20 trillion (US$ 1.5 billion) due to recent forest fires. That’s twice of their regional budget.”
Furthermore, he reminded the government that if the moratorium missed its deadline then deforestation could occur to 4.3 million hectares of Other Uses Areas (APL) and Conversion Production Forest (HPK) within the area.
In addition, 12.5 million hectares of primary forest and peatlands, outside of conservation and protected forests, will also potentially be deforested.
Up till 2014, 63.8 million out of the total of 93.6 hectares have been included at the moratorium, which consists of 58.9 million hectares of primary forests and 4.9 million hectares of peatlands.
“There are 42.8 million hectares of natural forests left out from the moratorium during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration so it will become Jokowi’s crucial agenda [to include these areas into the moratorium],” said Surya.
Sisilia Nurmala Dewi of HuMa stressed on the need to have specific target and not just limited to two years of time which had been stipulated in the current regulation.
“The presidential instruction has been revised for two times and they were for two years time. It is about time to have specific target which can define on how long to achieve [forest] recovery,” said Dewi adding that it should be regulated through presidential regulation (Perpres) to have strong legal impacts rather than just ‘instruction’.
Furthermore, she reminded to include customary forest areas and conflict resolution into the moratorium citing that 94 out 301 cases related to agrarian issues were coming from forestry sector in 2014. Fidelis E. Satriastanti.
