Deputy Forestry Minister: Strengthening Forestry Law for Sustainable Management
Badung, Bali (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister of Forestry (Wamenhut) Rohmat Marzuki has affirmed the importance of strengthening the Forestry Law as an effort to respond to legal developments, policies, and sustainable forest management practices. This aligns with the Bill on the Fourth Amendment to Law Number 41 of 1999 on Forestry, which is currently being drafted by the Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut) together with the Legislative Body of the House of Representatives.
“To realise the constitutional mandate, forest management must ensure a balance between economic, social, and environmental functions,” said Deputy Minister Rohmat in Badung, Bali, on Wednesday.
According to him, state control over forests is not to be interpreted as state ownership of all forest areas. Such control serves as the basis for the state’s authority to regulate, administer, determine the status of forest areas, grant utilisation permits, carry out management, and ensure that the ecological and social functions of forests are maintained for the broader public interest.
He assessed that the refinement of norms regarding state control over forests needs to be undertaken in order to provide stronger legal certainty for all parties. He added that this must also remain aligned with respect for the rights of customary law communities and communities living within or around forest areas.
Rohmat also conveyed that one of the biggest challenges in the forestry sector is resolving tenure conflicts in forest areas. He noted overlapping claims between forest areas and community land, customary territories, and permits from other sectors, necessitating strengthened regulation and accelerated implementation on the ground.
Kemenhut, Rohmat continued, also sees the need to strengthen regulations concerning environmental services and the carbon economy. “When the Forestry Law was drafted in 1999, issues such as carbon trading, carbon credits, payment for environmental services, and nature-based solutions had not developed as they have today, so they need to be reinforced in the revision of the Forestry Law to have a clearer legal foundation,” he explained.
Several clusters of material proposed by Kemenhut regarding the bill include definitions and boundary delimitations, state control over forests, forest status and functions, forest inventories, adequacy of forest area and forest cover, forest areas with specific purposes, forest management including social forestry, forest product processing, customary law communities, forest rehabilitation, forestry information systems, forestry funding, and forestry law enforcement.
“This Forestry Bill is expected to be a momentum to strengthen legal certainty for forest areas, accelerate the resolution of tenure conflicts, reinforce recognition of customary law communities, support the carbon economy, and ensure forest management remains oriented towards sustainability and the people’s prosperity,” said the Deputy Minister.