House Approves Forestry Bill as Initiative Proposal

A plenary session of the House of Representatives has approved the Bill on the Fourth Amendment to Law Number 41 of 1999 on Forestry, or the revision of the Forestry Law, as an initiative proposal. The decision was taken during the third plenary session of the first sitting period of the 2026/2027 session year.

Deputy Speaker Cucun Ahmad Syamsurijal initially invited each faction to submit its views on the Forestry Bill in writing to the presiding table of the plenary session on Thursday, 27 August 2026. He then asked the House whether the initiative bill from Commission IV on the Fourth Amendment to Law Number 41 of 1999 on Forestry could be approved as a House initiative bill, to which members responded in agreement. The presiding officer struck the gavel to mark approval.

The Legislation Body had previously approved the harmonisation of the bill. All factions agreed to the bill. The decision-making meeting on the harmonisation results was held at the House building in Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday, 18 February 2026. Legislation Body chairman Bob Hasan said all factions in the body approved the harmonisation results for further processing.

Sturman Panjaitan, chairman of the harmonisation working committee, said the committee had completed technical and substantive discussions on the bill. He said input had also been sought from the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency on 9 and 15 June 2026.

Sturman said a number of refinements had been made, including 13 technical corrections aligned with Law Number 12 of 2011 on the Formation of Legislation, improvements to provisions on state control of forests in accordance with Constitutional Court Decision Number 35/PUU-X/2012, and the addition of an obligation to involve public participation in forest area designation.

He said other changes included restoring the formulation of Articles 24 and 41 to the currently applicable law regarding the utilisation of forest areas that are partially excluded, namely nature reserves and core zones of national parks, including the reforestation obligation that is excluded for nature reserves and core zones of national parks.

He said further changes included adding formulations on the existence of indigenous communities and existing land tenure and ownership. There is also an obligation to involve affected communities in all stages of forest area designation.

There are also provisions on delegation for the completion of implementing regulations, and the addition of monitoring and review provisions in the closing provisions.

Based on technical and substantive aspects and the principles of legislative formation, the working committee concluded that the Bill on the Fourth Amendment to Law Number 41 of 1999 on Forestry could be submitted as a House initiative bill.