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)