Govt to delegate forest management

Govt to delegate forest management

JAKARTA (JP): The government is to issue a decree later this
year on the delegation of forest supervision from the central
government to local administrations.

"The decree will be made to promote the preservation of our
forests," Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said
yesterday.

Under the current regulation, the supervision of forest
management, including the issuance of forest utilization
licenses, is held by the central government.

The planned decree, he said, will transfer most aspects of
forest supervision to local administrations, leaving the central
government only handling a small number of national-scale
forestry affairs.

He did not elaborate on the national-scale forestry affairs.

The planned decree will give local administrations
responsibility over forest protection and the rights to issue
licenses for the use of non-wood forest production.

"With the current regulation, local authorities always say it
is not them but the central authorities which are responsible for
forest destruction in their areas. With the planned decree, they
will not be able to say so again," the minister said.

In line with the issuance of the planned decree, Djamaludin
said the government will try to harmonize the Master Plan for
Forestry Areas with the Forest Landuse by Consensus scheme to
prevent overlapping occurring.

The Master Plan for Forestry Areas, which is issued by regency
administrations, often overlaps with the Forest Landuse by
Consensus scheme, which is issued by the Ministry of Forestry to
forest concessionaires.

If both projects are harmonized, he said, the Forest Landuse
document will clearly set lines between state forests and the
non-state forests, which may be utilized by local authorities.

In a situation where a non-state forest is still under the
control of a concessionaire at the issuance date of the planned
decree, the concessionaire should negotiate with the regency
administration on the continuing use of the land.

"There are two possible outcomes to such negotiations. The
regency administration may wait for the (concessionaire's)
license to expire or the concessionaire could make a new
investment in the forest, by, for instance, changing it into a
plantation," said the minister. (jsk)