Ministry of Forestry sharpens Multiforestry Business concept through revision of Regulation P.8
The Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut) is sharpening the Multiforestry Business (MUK) concept through improvements to the Minister of Environment and Forestry Regulation Number 8 of 2021 concerning Forest Governance and Forest Management Planning, as well as Forest Utilisation in Protected Forests and Production Forests (P.8).
“This revision also carries out fine-tuning to sharpen the MUK concept so that its success rate can be increased,” said the Director General of Sustainable Forest Management at Kemenhut, Laksmi Wijayanti, in a statement in Jakarta on Friday.
“Forests must provide high tangible benefits so that all parties are motivated to preserve them. The measures are reduced damage, increased income from forests, and reduced poverty around forests,” she added.
She said P.8 was introduced as a derivative of the Job Creation Law, elaborated through Government Regulation Number 23 of 2021, which ensures that natural resource utilisation can create an economy that absorbs labour while improving community welfare.
After being implemented for five years, she assessed that it is time to review whether its operations align with the expected objectives.
Furthermore, Laksmi said improvements to this regulation are considered urgent to address the future challenges of Indonesian forestry amid today’s highly dynamic landscape.
“The revision of P.8 will examine various cross-cutting issues, including: area boundaries, overlaps, distribution of benefits to communities, operational business activities, investment ease, licensing, and markets,” said Laksmi.
In addition, Laksmi said Indonesia is currently in the midst of massive geopolitical changes, so it must prioritise the comparative advantage of its natural resources.
Forests, she continued, represent a natural resource with a very significant spatial extent, making the revision of P.8 crucial to respond to these dynamics.
She also stressed that forest utilisation must be harmonious and supportive of habitat improvement efforts, so its implementation provisions must break deadlocks and reduce risks.
“The revision of P.8 is not merely revising a regulation, but transforming the paradigm of forestry governance from controlling activities through procedures and bureaucracy to governance based on trust, process simplification, digitalisation, and shared responsibility between the government, communities, and permit holders,” said Laksmi.