Benget Besalicto Tnb. , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 05/15/2009 1:09 PM | Business
Millions of hectares of productive forest areas are being allocated for other business purposes due to regional autonomy and the emergence of new regencies and provinces.
Businessmen's groups under the once-influential Association of Indonesian Forestry Businessmen (APHI) said Thursday that widespread revisions of land zoning rules threatened the continuity of forestry-based industries, which now depend on raw materials from industrial forestry plantation concessions rather than from natural forests.
APHI chairman Soegiono said many provinces and regencies have made proposals to change the use of millions of hectares of industrial forestry areas (HTI) and unused natural forest concession areas (HPH) to other business purposes, including for property or public facilities.
"I think millions of hectares across Indonesia will no longer be included in forest areas. We've seen that East Kalimantan province has proposed to exclude 2 million hectare from its forest areas, Central Kalimantan proposed 1.9 million hectares, and North Sumatra 1.4 million hectares. We're concerned over these issues because this would be followed by other provinces," said Soegiono on the sidelines of the association's annual meeting.
He said that many APHI members had complained that they could no longer continue with their forestry-based projects in their concession areas due to such developments desite the legal status and protection provided by the Forestry Ministry.
Euphoria over regional autonomy and the emergence of new regencies and provinces triggered problems as local administrations abruptly revised spatial planning and zoning in their regions, according to Soegiono.
"Worst still, the Forestry Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the National Land Agency (BPN), the Defense Ministry, and the Public Works Ministry have their own planning for forest areas. This has caused complicated overlapping regulations," he said.
For example the office complex of Central Kalimantan governor in Palangka Raya has unclear status. The provincial administration converted land use to office buildings while the Forestry Ministry insisted on keeping it as forest concession land.
"This is very disturbing considering that we're currently trying to attract investors here," said Soegiono.
Forestry Ministry spokesman, Masyhud said there were eight provinces -- East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, Bengkulu and Jambi -- proposing to change millions of hectares of forest areas to other functions.
"We've received such proposals. But we're still discussing them. It's not final yet," he said.
Soegiono said the government had recently appointed the Public Works Ministry, not the Forestry Ministry, to make new land allocations and zoning for forest areas.
"It shouldn't be only the Public Works Ministry that is tasked with the job because it is unlikely to be able to accommodate the interest of all the parties."
"But perhaps it would be better to appoint the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) for the planning job," he said.
