House deliberates new bill on forestry

By Sylvia Gratia M. Nirang

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry and Plantations Muslimin Nasution might not need to cross a rocky road in his quest to secure approval for the government-sponsored forestry bill from the House of Representatives.

Despite strong protests from environmentalists, non governmental organizations (NGOs) and former ministers, deliberation of the bill ran smoothly.

Former director general of forest utilization, Titus Sarijanto, who headed a team in charge of preparing the bill said the House was expected to pass the bill into law some time this week, earlier that the targeted "before the end of the current legislative term of Sept. 24."

"Debates are now mostly centered on the wording of the bill," Titus said.

The bill submission to the House on July 19 was marked by strong protest from NGOs, which said the bill, in addition to lacking empowerment measures for local people, also failed to spell out the need to follow international conventions on forests, biodiversity and the global climate.

They said the bill's debate should be delayed until new members of the House were appointed in late September, in order to give more time to the government to gain input from forest concessionaires.

However, the government refused to delay the debate saying the postponement of House debate on the bill would mean a delay in implementation of the forest law, which would be unacceptable.

According to Muslimin, the House made the first call in 1980 for a new forestry law, saying that the existing 1967 Forestry Law was no longer able to protect the country's forestry areas, many of which were being devastated by fire.

In response to the call, the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations, which at that time was still named the Ministry of Forestry, together with concerned agencies drafted the bill.

The draft submitted to the House on July 19 is the 18th draft, Muslimin said.

Muslimin said drafting of the new bill started in 1988 and involved many experts, representatives of various governmental offices, environmentalists, NGOs, local and international consultants of forestry and the environment, businesspeople, professional organizations, academics and legislators.

"So it's not true that the bill was drafted without taking into account inputs from the public," he said referring to a complaint from NGOs saying that the bill was drafted without taking into account public inputs.

Muslimin said the draft legislation, submitted to the House on July 19 would allow for greater participation of cooperatives and provincial administration-owned companies in managing forest resources.

Under its stipulations, concession holders would be obliged to provide a performance bond or bank guarantee in an amount commensurate with the potential yield of each concession area in order to ensure that forest areas were managed in a sustainable manner.

The bill also recognizes class actions against companies and parties charged with damaging forests and causing losses to local people.

However, he said that the bill did not specifically provide guidelines for the granting of concession rights, which was addressed in Government Regulation No. 6/1999.

Under the regulation, concession areas of each timber companies would be limited to 100,000 hectares in each province or 400,000 hectares nationwide.

Article 31 of the bill stated that the maximum limit of the forest concession would be determined in a government regulation.

"This regulation will set a maximum limit for concession areas that can be awarded to a company and a business group in particular provinces and the term of concession rights."

The bill also does not stipulate specific provisions on the decentralization of licensing related to forest management. It states that the central government will delegate the administration of "several aspects of forest management to local administrations".

In the debates, the House's four factions -- the ruling Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and the Indonesian Military -- said the bill was unclear about the central government's and provincial administrations' roles in managing the forests.

"In its present form, the bill is like a blank check which could be filled in anyway the government wished. This bill indicates that the central government is still half-hearted in awarding local administrations greater autonomy in forest management," Ignatius Mulyono, the spokesman for the military faction, said during the general debate on the bill.

Erham Amin of the Golkar faction said the implementation of the bill should comply with the intergovernmental fiscal balance to ensure local administrations and the people benefited from the natural wealth in their areas.

The unfair distribution of revenue has led to separatist rumblings in some resource rich provinces. People have also become increasingly angry by what they see as timber companies' greed for forest resources and disregard for the welfare of locals.

Local tribes

Muslimin said the bill also specifically outlines the rights of local people living near forest concessions, including their participation in logging activities.

"The bill also stipulates that the government shall seriously consider the rights of local people before granting forest concessions," Muslimin said.

Many NGOs objected the bill, saying that the bill, like the existing forestry law, had failed to outline local tribes' rights in managing the forest.

Section eight of the bill specifically recognizes the existence of local tribes and their rights in managing the forest. But their existence will be recognized by the say-so of local administrations.

"This may create injustice," Longgena Ginting, head of Forest Advocacy Department of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) said. Walhi is one of the NGOs that objected the law.

Hasanu Simon of the Forestry Community Communication Forum (FKKM) said the government should give official recognition to local tribes' rights by making recognizing their forest as "folk forest".

Forest fires

The bill also rules that concession holders shall be held responsible for forest fires in their concession areas, meaning they will be considered culpable should a fire break out unless they can provide evidence proving their innocence.

"Based on experience, we could not adopt the presumption of innocence in the case of forest fires. So the onus will lie with timber companies in the event of forest fires in their concession areas," Muslimin said.

In further progress of the deliberation, the House and the government has agreed to impose tougher sanctions on companies violating a government ban on the use of fire to clear land and forest.

They agreed to threaten company officials clearing land by fire with a maximum 15-year jail term and a fine of up to Rp 5 billion.

The House's four factions said negligence by company officials which led to fires in their forestry concessions would incur maximum jail terms of five years and a fine of up to Rp 1.5 billion.

The smooth deliberation of the bill had sparked rumors that the government had used the reforestation funds in the ministry account to bribe the legislators.

Muslimin, however, blasted the accusation saying that it was baseless as all of the funds had been transferred to the state budget.