Forestry bill does not support small firms

JAKARTA (JP): The proposed forestry bill fails to address local administrations' demand for greater autonomy in managing the country's forest assets, according to the Indonesian Forestry Society for Reform (MPI Reformasi).

The organization's chairman, Sofyan Siambaton, said on Wednesday that the draft law also gave no support to the government's program to empower cooperatives and small industries in the forestry sector.

"The draft law should be revised before being submitted to the House of Representatives for ratification," he told a news conference.

He said that the draft law was too centralistic and inconsistent with the government's recent moves to redistribute the country's forest assets from the small number of big companies and to provide a better chance for cooperatives and small businesses to benefit from the forests.

The bill, which is currently awaiting government approval before being deliberated by the House, proposes the establishment of special forestry companies to represent the government in issuing forest licenses to private firms and cooperatives.

All matters related to forest management are to be decided by the minister of forestry and plantations through the state-owned forestry companies.

Sofyan said such a regulation would prompt dissatisfaction among local communities, cooperatives, and small companies because they would have to deal directly with the central government when managing their forest areas.

Such a regulation would be too costly for them, he added.

Sofyan said that the bill (in its current form) also provided a big opportunity for officials of the appointed state forestry companies to practice collusion with big timber companies.

It would also prompt dissatisfaction among local people over what they might see as a company's disregard for the local economy, he said.

"Why can't we trust governors and provincial administrations to handle small-scale forest management conducted by local people, cooperatives and small-scale timber companies. The ministry could handle the large-scale forest utilization, such as the pulp and plywood factories," he said.

"Local administrations should be given a greater role because they are the ones who are involved directly in the field."

He said that the violent attacks by local protesters on the pulp and rayon mills of publicly listed PT Inti Indorayon Utama near Lake Toba in North Sumatra last month, were an example of the hazards faced by resource-based ventures operating in Indonesia's new era of reform as a result of the government not accommodating local people's needs. (gis)