House deliberates new bill on forestry

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.