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Licensing loopholes threaten Papuan forests
Although the government has imposed a moratorium on concession permits for forest and peatland areas, Greenpeace Indonesia has found companies can still request to exclude their concessions from the moratorium map.
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Greenpeace Indonesia activists protest the destruction of forests in Papua at the Environment and Forestry Ministry's office in Jakarta on April 8. (Antara/Indrianto Eko Suwarso)
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waths of forest in Papua are facing destruction because of loopholes in the government’s licensing system, Greenpeace Indonesia has found, despite a moratorium on forest concession permits and oil palm development.
The environmental organization analyzed Environment and Forestry Ministry records from 2000 to 2019 and found that some 950,000 hectares of forest in Papua and West Papua had been released for plantation concessions in the period.
Around 685,000 ha, or 70 percent of the concessions, still had tree cover. Some 440,000 ha was primary forest and around 108,000 ha was peatland, an ecosystem known for its role in mitigating climate change by storing carbon.
Greenpeace’s report corroborated other recent reports of deforestation in Papua, including a Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) study that found that around 168,000 ha of forest had been converted to plantations in the area since 2000.
Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Arie Rompas said during a discussion on April 6 that the government ignored the fact that some concessions overlapped with primary forests, which were supposed to be subject to a permit moratorium.
Read also: Govt takes credit for lowest deforestation rate in 5 years
The government introduced a moratorium on concession permits for primary forest and peatland areas in 2011 and extended it every two years until August 2019, when President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo issued a presidential instruction (Inpres) to make the policy permanent.
