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Govt may increase forest moratorium to five years
The government says it will propose a five-year moratorium on issuing permits to develop peatlands — three more years than Indonesia agreed to under a billion-dollar deforestation agreement recently signed with Norway
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he government says it will propose a five-year moratorium on issuing permits to develop peatlands — three more years than Indonesia agreed to under a billion-dollar deforestation agreement recently signed with Norway.
A draft presidential regulation says that the five-year moratorium on new permits is part of government efforts to mitigate climate change and to meet a pledge to cut carbon emissions by 26 percent over the next several years.
A forestry expert from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), Haryadi Kartodihardjo, who was also involved in drafting the policy, said the five-year ban would be used to promote sustainable peatland management.
“A two-year moratorium will not enough if we want sustainable peatland management,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The draft says that the government will re-examine all peatland concession permits during the moratorium, including existing permits.
The government will also assess the financial benefits from peatland-based carbon protection programs, according to the draft.
In addition, a restoration management unit will also be established to reclassify degraded peatlands as protected areas.
Haryadi said that the government can offer two options to business with existing concessions: a shift from concession land to restored areas or a land swap system.
“If the government issued permits previously and the permits are still in line with spatial planning law, the government should offer compensation,” he said.
Copies of the draft were made available to journalists by Emil Salim, an adviser to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The draft was prepared by senior officials from the Forestry Ministry, Environment Ministry, forestry experts and representatives of NGOs such as WWF Indonesia.
Indonesia has more than 21 million hectares of peatlands, including 8 million hectares in Papua, 7.2 million hectares in Sumatra and 5.8 million hectares in Kalimantan.
The country’s peatland forests contain an estimated 46 gigatons of carbon.
When drained, peatlands becomes a source of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
Indonesia has pledged Rp 83 trillion in state funds to cut its carbon emissions by 0.67 gigatons by 2020, a 26 percent decrease.
About 80 percent of the emission cut target will come from the forestry sector.
The issue of moratorium on new peatland and natural forests concessions was raised after Indonesia and Norway signed a billion-dollar deal to reduce the deforestation in Indonesia.
Indonesia promised to impose a two-year suspension on new permits on concessions to develop peatlands and natural forest.
Preliminary reports from the Forestry Ministry show that the country can allocate only 170,000 hectares of peatlands for the two-year moratorium.
The National Council on Climate Change (DNPI) will be tasked to coordinate implementation of the moratorium, according to the proposal.
The draft moratorium has not yet been discussed interdepartmentally, said council secretary-general Agus Purnomo, who is also a former special assistant to Yudhoyono on climate change issues.
“The five-year moratorium discussed in the draft is still a subject of discussion. More discussions are needed,” Agus told the Post.
The moratorium’s duration will no longer be important if all stakeholders agree to protect the country’s peatlands, he said.
“We want existing concessions to be included in the moratorium — otherwise the suspension,
whether for two or three years, will be meaningless,” Greenpeace Indonesia representative Bustar
Maitar said.
Greenomics Indonesia chief Elfian Effendi also agreed and said the draft did not accommodate autonomy in the proposed moratorium.
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Letter to the Editor: Clarification from Emil Salim
Referring to a news article "Govt may increase forest moratorium to five years" by Adianto P. Simamura, it is reported that "Copies of the draft were made available to journalists by Emil Salim, an adviser to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono" in The Jakarta Post of July 8, page 5.
Please note that as member of the Presidential Council of Advisors, by Presidential Decree, I cannot and have not distributed any draft documents to journalists as mentioned.
I appreciate any correction you can make in this regard.
Presidential Council of Advisors,
Member
Emil Salim
Jakarta
Note: We apologize for
the error
- Editor
