Jakarta (Greeners) – Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) finally issued the long-awaited regulation on land swap for industrial plantation forest as part its effort to protect peatland ecosystem, said a senior official in Jakarta, on Wednesday (19/7).
The 2017 Ministerial Regulation on Government Facilitation on Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI) to Protect and Manage Peatland Ecosystem stipulates revised or adjustments on Work Plan (RKU) and Annual Work Plan (RKT) as main requirement to obtain land swap.
“Land swap allocation will be directed to former HTI areas with low performance or returned [to the state] or has yet to obtain any permits,” said Bambang Hendroyono, Secretary General of Environment and Forestry Ministry, adding that the swapped lands must be categorized as low performance and mineral areas.
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Furthermore, Hendroyono said that at least 902,210 hectares of lands were available for swapping, resulted from no permits areas with the total of 507,410 ha, social management areas outside Social Forestry Areas Indicative Map with a total of 290,560 ha, less than 20 percent of forest cover and close to HTI with a total of 61,785 ha and Production Forest with a total of 42,445 ha.
“In the regulation, government has been giving facilities for concessions holders in the forms of conflict resolution facilitation, social forestry development and land swap support,” he said.
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The Ministry’s Director of Production Forest Management Unity, Drasospolino said that adapting RKU and RKT in line with peatland ecosystem map was necessary to maintain the continuation of raw materials availability and business sustainability.
The land swap is granted to permit holders of HTI of which its working areas above or equals to 40 percent included in peatlands ecosystem.
Based on recent review, at least 699,929 ha of peatland ecosystem have been planted and 210,464 ha have yet to be planted.
Drasospolino said that if within a year there were no planting or development on the land swap areas, then minister will revoke the areas.
“Ministry of Environment and Forestry will continue to assist, monitor and review on land swap implementation to reach a success level in peatland ecosystem management and HTI business sustainability,” he added.
Reports by Danny Kosasih
21 Apr 2024 
