RI forest concessions restructured

RI forest concessions restructured

JAKARTA (JP): A ministerial decree will force the merger of
195 forest concessions into a smaller number in the coming five
years under a new management system aimed at assuring the
sustainability of Indonesian forests.

Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said here
yesterday that the decree requires concessionaires operating
under the existing HPH system to convert their holdings to
Production Forest Management Units (KPHPs) when their licenses
expire.

There are currently 500 concessionaires operating under the
HPH system.

"The KPHP concept was defined under the Minister of Forestry's
Decree No. 200/II/1991 to gradually replace the HPH system to
guarantee sustainable management," the minister told a forest
management seminar which was sponsored by his ministry and the
Overseas Development Administration (ODA) of Britain here
yesterday.

HPH concessionaires currently exploit forests, whose widths
range from 20,000 to 2,000,000 hectares, under 20-year
government-issued licenses.

The HPH system has been criticized by various environmental
groups, as well as the World Bank, which estimates that about 1.1
million hectares of Indonesian forests are destroyed annually.

Djamaludin conceded recently that Indonesia has only 113
million hectares of forest, holding some 2.4 billion cubic meters
of logs, whereas the previous claim was 141 million hectares.

"Our immediate target is to change the soon-to-expire 195 HPH
concessions into KPHPs by 1999," Djamaludin said yesterday.

"In 25 years, we expect that all HPH concessions on islands
other than Java will be converted to KPHPs," he added.

Permanent

A KPHP concession, in contrast to the HPH, is designed to be a
permanent production forest with an average area of 100,000
hectares and will be managed on a long-term basis by a permanent
manager. No part of the KPHP may be cleared for other businesses.

The new system, in short, aims to facilitate a more certain
degree of forest sustainability by keeping the total growing
stock constant and by maintaining a fixed concession area.

The KPHP method, in contrast to the HPH system, also hopes to
mobilize "significant participation" from the provincial
authorities and their communities. How the local communities will
participate in the KPHP management activities has yet to be
regulated.

Two KPHP pilot projects, one in Central Kalimantan and the
other in Jambi, have been carried out since 1992.

The territorial-based KPHP system, in practice, is expected to
encourage a series of mergers among neighboring HPH
concessionaires.

However, various technical shortcomings, such as the lack of
sophisticated maps able to distinguish concessions' boundaries,
could possibly delay the new system.

Indro Tjahjono, an executive of the Indonesian Working
Secretariat of Forest Protection (Skephi), told The Jakarta Post
that the implementation of the KPHP system might have to wait for
at least one year until such maps are obtained by the Ministry of
Forestry.

Indro said that, unfortunately, he did not expect the KPHP
system to encourage better inter-ministerial coordination in
forest protection. (hdj)