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AKARTA: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will likely to sign a long-awaited moratorium that will require local administrations to stop issuing permits allowing the conversions of forests and peatlands.

Agus Purnomo, the President’s special adviser on climate change, said that a draft of the presidential instruction had been finalized.

“[The instruction] will very likely be issued this week,” he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The delay on issuing new permits would cover all primary forests and peatlands located in conversion forests, protected forests and production forests, according to the website of the Cabinet Secretariat

The draft also stipulated that forest management should be carried out during the moratorium.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan and the presdiential taskforce on REDD-Plus would jointly report on the implementation of the forest moratorium to Yudhoyono every six months.

The two-year forest moratorium was stipulated by the US$1 billion climate deal between Indonesian and Norwegian governments. — JP