Committee set to solve land, forest problems
Committee set to solve land, forest problems
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Forestry and the National Land
Agency (BPN) yesterday formed a permanent committee to address
land and forest management problems related to land
appropriation, license overlapping, swaps and planning.
The committee, which boasts 17 top officials from the two
institutions as members, was established under the joint decree
of Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo and State
Minister for Agrarian Affairs/Chairman of BPN Soni Harsono.
Indonesia, which currently has 113 million hectares of forests
with reserves of some 2.4 billion cubic meters of timber, last
year exported US$5.47 billion worth of wood products, which
accounted for 14.86 percent of the country's total exports.
"This committee was formed to speed up and coordinate
bureaucratic procedures," said Djamaludin. "They have direct
access to both of us."
Soni added that the committee would start working today.
Djamaludin also said the committee is expected to handle
problems of land appropriation, overlapping of licenses, land
swaps and master plans more efficiently.
He referred to the Pantai Indah Kapuk waterfront of North
Jakarta as one land-swapping case which he labeled "significantly
time-consuming."
The already completed Indah Kapuk golf course and residential
project, which was formerly a mangrove swamp, became the center
of controversy last year as the developers encountered criticism
from legislators and environmentalists. The developers eventually
offered another plot, located in West Java, as compensation for
the damage in North Jakarta.
The offer, however, has yet to materialize, and the
environmental impact analysis conducted by the government-
controlled Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) is
still pending.
Soni also noted that the two ministers will serve as the
committee's advisors.
The permanent committee is jointly chaired by the Forestry
Ministry's Director General of Forest Inventory/Forest
Utilization and BPN's Ministerial Aide on Agrarian Planning.
The committee will have two secretaries, who are concurrently
the Director of Program Development of the Forestry Ministry and
the Assistant to the State Minister of Agrarian Affairs. The
other members consist of second echelon officials from the two
offices.
Fire
In response to questions about a fire razing forests in
Lampung, Djamaludin said, "I do not rule out the possibility that
the arson was rooted in labor problems."
About 5,000 hectares of dry forests in South Sumatra,
including the timber estate of PT Musi Persada, a subsidiary of
the listed Barito Pacific Timber, have reportedly been damaged by
the fire.
News reports stated that the authorities have arrested three
suspects who later admitted that they had burned the forests
because of wage disputes.
"Anyway I'm going there today to find out for sure what really
took place," Djamaludin added. (hdj)