Jakarta, Ekuatorial – Indonesia’s head of forest conservation initiative dubbed as REDD+, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, Heru Prasetyo on Friday (9/1) denied rumors that the agency would be merged into Climate Change Control Directorate General under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
However, Prasetyo did confirm that he had met Minister Siti Nurbaya to discuss details on the ministry’s structure.
“Me and the minister with cabinet secretary Andi [Widjajanto] were discussing on the best way to achieve [President] Jokowi’s vision and mission,” he said in his office, in Jakarta. “I just consulted on what should we do? Will it be absorb into the ministry or what?”
He underlined that they were only discussing on the concept, obstacles, challenges, transition situation, also expertise, but there was no agreement on merging REDD+ agency with the ministry.
“I asked for two days to think about it [the merger] because this is not a simple matter as it involves technical, management and policy of president. So, for structure, we are still discussing it,” he added.
Nevertheless, he said that the minister was planning to merge institutions with similar issues for efficiency and prevent overlapping between institutions.
“Ibu Siti said there were ideas to collaborate several directorate generals in her ministry. Then, she presented concept of nine directorate generals and six expert staffs. She also said she is putting great focus for Climate Change Control Directorate General with Ministry of State Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform,” he said adding that there were still no details or format for the merge. “So, this is just only an idea, we are discussing an idea,” he said.
On current REDD+ agency, Prasetyo said that he wanted to finish the job but realized that it was formed during transitional phase. “We don’t want the work that we did would be stopped too early,” he said. “During new administration, we reported to the president and asked for any inputs so that he will receive full and concise report on REDD+. We want the president to be able to make decision that will put us into the best and effective position. So, lets the president decide.”
Previously, Abdon Nababan, secretary general of Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago or AMAN, had rejected the idea to merge REDD+ agency into the ministry as it would bring high risk for the country’s forest protection.
“REDD agency is still new so just let them do their job. The merger is too risky because the ministry’s work has yet to be proven ever since the merge between environment and forestry [ministries],” said Nababan referring old officials at the ministry of forestry would weaken forest protection efforts.
“The reason for no improvement for Indonesia’s forest is because of bureaucracy within ministry of forestry, not to mention its political regime. The minister should be able to ensure her ministry’s work and guarantee that forest protection would be done greatly,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that he was not convinced on the benefit from merging REDD agency into the ministry. REDD+ agency could be power boost within the ministry, he said, but its jobs would be more synchronized with ministry of environment instead of exploitative forestry ministry.
“[I] fear that the forestry ministry still gain more power and would weaken ministry of environment and REDD+ agency. We have to see its performance first.” he said.
He added that REDD+ agency was one of the bridge to acknowledge indigenous people existence, if they were being merged then automatically that indigenous people’s fight for recognition would be stagnant.
“President Jokowi and [vice president] JK have already make strong commitment for recognize indigenous people’s rights by forming a Task Force. It will be a strong bridge for us to be recognized. But, the task force is still an imagination. So, don’t let one bridge fall down before one bridge is built,” he said. Januar Hakam