Jakarta (Greeners) – Ministry of Environment and Forestry will issue two new forest managements, — Reduce Impact Logging (RIL) and Silviculture Intensive (SILIN) — to keep up with the evolution of technology, said a senior official, in Jakarta, on Tuesday (18/09/2018).

Director General of Sustainable Forest Management, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Hilman Nugroho, said that SILIN will be applied on Indonesian Selective Logging and Planting (TPTI) and Selective Logging and Planting in Lane (TPTJ). This is because TPTI only produce 30 cubic meters of wood on one hectare of land.

“So, this is how we can move forward and have high productivity. The answers are two, environmentally friendly logging and silviculture system,” said Nugroho. “Previously only 30 cubic meter, [now] 120 cubic meter. This is only using 20 percent from one hectare.”

READ ALSO: ISPO and RSPO Certifications for Indonesia’s Sustainable Oil Palm Industry 

Furthermore, he said that logging from natural forests reached to 28 million cubic meter in 1990s, however, the number declined to 80 percent in 2015. It is resulted from declining natural forest areas and the growth of tree less than 0.4 centimeter per year. Consequently, logging industry was decreasing along with employment, and biodiversity of secondary forests.

SILIN on secondary forests is done through enrichment planting based on endemic species. This approach will use lane and gap planting. SILIN is a silviculture technique which combines rehabilitation of trees, environmental manipulation, and pest management.

“SILIN with superior dipterocarpus types can increase plants diameter up to more than 1.7 centimeter per year compare to natural meranti growth of 0.4 centimeter per year,” he said. “This technique will produce natural forests productivity up to 300 percent compare without intensive planting.”

READ ALSO: SVLK Boosts Indonesia’s Wood Export to 10.94 Billion Dollar 

Another forest management is Reduce Impact Logging (RIL), a systematic approach comprises of planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of logging.

“RILL will minimize the waste of harvesting, increase wood production, and reduce carbon emission. RIL is compulsory to all companies to log harvesting,” he said.

In addition, RIL has reduce impacts of climate change, such as reducing CO2 emission of 29-50 percent from forest deforestation and land use changes, increase CO2 absorption up to 1.7 times and store forest carbon up to 1.56 times, and reduce CO2 emission up to 41 percent in waste decomposition.

SILIN and RIL will be introduced at National Forest Management Unit Festival and Exhibition and Pusaka, held in September 23, in Yogyakarta.

Nugroho said that both systems have shown forestry progress in sustainable forest management. The systems are expected to realize useful, high economical, ecological and social Indonesian forests.

Reports by Dewi Purningsih

Jakarta (Greeners) – At least 2.7 million hectares of primary forest and peat lands lost during six years of moratorium policy implementation, said an activist, in Jakarta, on Friday (5/5).

In addition, 28 percent of hotspots have destroyed protected forest included in the moratorium map every year.

Recent finding from the policy revealed by Civil Society Coalition for Saving Indonesia’s Forest and Global Climate that there had been a reduced of 2,701,938 hectares for the past six years.

“Ironically, where they’re converted, it’s still unknown,” said Linda Rosalina of Forest Watch Indonesia.

READ ALSO: BRG: Social Forestry and Agrarian Reform To Develop Peatlands In Indonesia

For more than two decades, Rosalina said, environmental disaster caused by forest damages had seriously impacted people’s lives. Forest and peat fires for the last three months in 2015 were the hardest hits.

Indonesian government has made commitment to improve forest and peat lands management by issuing Presidential Instruction No. 10/2011 on Halting New Permits Issuance and Primary Forest and Peatlands Management for two years.

The policy was extended under Presidential Instruction issued in 2013 followed by another instruction issued two years later but without strengthening protection.

“In practice, though it had been implemented for six years, the policy has yet to solve issues related to primary forest and peatlands management,” she said. “The policy was implemented partially and does not have significant impacts for protecting the remaining primary forest and peats.”

Yustina Murdiningrum of Epistema Institute said that 69,044 hotspots were spotted in 2015 and 31 percent or 21,552 hotspots were spotted in areas declared as protected under the moratorium indicative map.

Meanwhile, the spread of hotspots on moratorium areas accounts for 28.5 percent of national hotspots between 2011 and 2016, which shows the trend, was increasing.

READ ALSO: Ministry of Environment and Forestry Allocates 12.7 Million Hectares on Social Forestry

Meanwhile, forest covers from first to ninth revisions were showing decreasing of a total of 831,053 hectares which showed that the policy has yet to stop deforestation even in moratorium areas. In addition, people’s areas included in social forestry scheme also included in moratorium areas.

“This is obviously disturbing existing management permits and submitted proposals which would hamper social forestry target,” said Murdiningrum.

Teguh Surya of Madani Berkelanjutan Foundation said the president should have been encouraged for next strategic actions along with other stakeholders by setting up Indonesia’s Road Map Towards Zero Deforestation in 2020.

Surya said the roadmap similar to Indonesia’s Action Plan towards Zero Deforestation in 2020, monitor the implementation, speed up One Map Policy, evaluate integrated permit mechanism, law enforcement and conflict resolution.

“The six strategies are positive and strong indicators as well as measured from Indonesian government to the world as its commitment to stop tropical rain forest destruction as promised by President Jokowi in Paris, in 2015,” he added.

Reports by Danny Kosasih

Jakarta (Greeners) – In the effort to tackle climate change, there’s still lack of involvement from indigenous peoples to manage natural resources in Indonesia, said a forester, in Jakarta, on Saturday (17/12).

Emil Kleden, scientist of Forest People Program, said that there were still no climate change related regulations which have included people’s participation despite it could serve as controlling mechanism over the government from public.

“This non-participation policies have been seen in the last two regimes, SBY administration and Jokowi administration which often dubbed as pro with tackling climate change,” he said.

READ ALSO: Indigenous Women Must Be Included at Climate Change Negotiations

Based on HuMa research, only five laws related to climate change which stipulated further policies on people’s participation, either on Government Regulation and Ministerial Regulation.

Dahniar Andriani, Executive Director of HuMa, said that there were 12 implementing policies have not included people’s participation at all.

Furthermore, she said that indigenous peoples have long protect the forests and reserved traditional knowledge which serve as ecological mitigation. Dahniar said that there was inconsistency in law enforcement. “For example, MK35. Not one customary forest has been assigned by the state,” she said.

READ ALSO: Environment Law Enforcement Must Involve Public in 2016

Sardi Razak, Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago, North Sulawesi chapter, said that Pasang ri Kajang customary law which was upheld by Ammatoa Kajang indigenous peoples was one of the example of their contribution to fight climate change.

Razak said that two administrations have only treated law enforcement as mere legal products. Without implementation, there will be new conflicts and it would ended up as junk of law.

“The government will face difficulties to implement good governance and new problems will rise as overlapping regulations and minimum implementation,” he said adding it would make the government hard to implement its programs leading to loss of trust from the people.

Reports by Danny Kosasih

Jakarta (Greeners) – Environmental watchdogs on Friday urged government to immediately issue legal platform for oil palm moratorium which had been announced by President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo on April 2016.

Zenzi Suhaedi, head of Research, Policy, and Legal Advocacy Department of Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said that oil palm ban should also include expansion permits, evaluation on existing permits, and forested areas should be returned as protected areas.

In addition, returning forest areas to protected areas should not eliminated permit holders’ obligation to protect forest and other conservation areas.

“Moratorium is the same as protecting forest cover. Hence, this moratorium puts hope to stop oil palm expansion to other forest areas. Moratorium is not just stopping permit issuance but it needs to have added value, such as returning environmental carrying capacity,” said Suhaedi in Jakarta.

READ ALSO: Indonesia to Issue Presidential Instruction on Oil Palm Moratorium

Furthermore, he added law enforcement for violations and crimes on existing oil palm permits, especially illegally obtained.

“Government should also revoke permits located in forest areas. To review oil palm concession permits in peatlands and restore areas burned down as part of law enforcement,” he said.

Maryo Saputra Sanuddin, Campaigner for Sawit Watch, said that moratorium, law enforcement, and best management were crucial as oil palm plantations in large scale have been causing massive environmental disasters, such as forest and land fires in 2015.

At least, he added, 16 percent detected in 2015 was located in oil palm plantations and 20 percent in pulp and paper concessions.

Based on Sawit Watch data, 717 land and environment related conflicts occurred in plantation sector. At least 59 percent out of 1,000 companies in Indonesia engaged in land conflicts with local people.

READ ALSO: President Jokowi Bans Oil Palm Plantation and Mining Concessions

One of the example of land conflicts resulted to violence and criminalization of indigenous peoples is in South Sorong.

Indigenous peoples of Kampung Puragi of Metamani and Kampung Benawa of Kokoda have been in conflicts with oil palm company, PT Permata Putera Mandiri, a subsidiary of PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya.

From 2008 to 2013, areas allocated for oil palm plantation had been increasing from 7.4 million to 10 million hectares or 35 percent. The number is equal to a total of Bali island per year. Up to date, oil palm plantation has reached 15 million hectares or increase 30 percent from the total in 2010.

“There has yet any significant law enforcement on corporations,” he said.” On the contrary, criminalization on indigenous peoples and local people have been increasing because of oil palm plantation expansion.”

READ ALSO: Indigenous Women Must Be Included at Climate Change Negotiations

Ministry of Environment and Forestry had given deadline on implementing oil palm and mining moratorium on June 2016. Secretary General at the ministry, Bambang Hendroyono, said that they were still discussing the legal grounds. He said that the ban would not disrupt Indonesia’s economic growth or business peoples.

“The moratorium is asked private sectors to optimize its performance especially on areas have yet to be planted,” said Hendroyono. “If the area is still in conflict then they need to resolve it.”

Environmental watchdog or Civil Society Coalition for Indonesia Forest and Global Climate comprise of Walhi, Pusaka Foundation, Epistema Institute, HuMa, Oil Palm Farmers Union, Sawit Watch, Merah Putih Foundation, Central Kalimantan Chapter of Walhi, Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), and Greenpeace Indonesia.

Reports by Danny Kosasih

Jakarta (Greeners) – President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo will be inaugurating Zamrud National Park of Siak district in Riau in conjunction with World Environment Day (WED), said a senior official, in Jakarta, on Tuesday (12/7).

Zamrud National Park, which covers 31,480 ha of areas, used to be Tasik Serkap Wildlife Reserve and Production Forest before turned its function based on Environment and Forestry Ministerial Letter issued on May 4, 2016.

Syamsuar, head of Siak district, said that local government had been proposing Zamrud as national park since 2010 for its unique landscape of lakes. There are two lakes, — Pulau Besar Lake (2,146 ha) and Bawah Lake (360 ha) –, in Zamrud village of which becomes the namesake of the park.

READ ALSO: Indonesia To Develop Integrated National Parks

Zamrud lake can be reached through land travel within three hours from Pekanbaru, Riau’s capital. Unfortunately, the site can only be reached through cars as there are no public transportation available.

Based on Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency data, there are 38 bird species in the location, 12 of them are protected, including White stork bird, hornbills, and blue-crowned hanging parrot (Loriculus galgulus) which is the province’ mascot. In addition, the park is also the home for siamang, sumatran tiger, sun bear, and flat-headed cat.

Meanwhile, the lake has at least 14 fish species of which eight of them hold economical values, such as sipimping (Oxygaster), selais (Kryptopterus), kayangan (Scleropages formosus), tapah (Wallago attu), baung (Hemibagrus), toman (Channa micropeltes), balido (Chitala lopis), and gelang fish.

READ ALSO: Indonesia Still Developing Nature Sites as Tourist Destination

Arsyadjuliandi Rachman, Riau Governor, said that Zamrud lake was initially a wildlife reserve closed for public nevertheless prone to encroachment and illegal hunting.

Before turned into a wildlife reserve, the area was one of oil well operated by PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, which is now PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia since 1975. The well was named Zamrud site. In 2002, Zamrud site was run by Joint Operation Agency between PT Bumi Siak Pusako – PT Pertamina Hulu.

Besides mining activities, other activities near the wildlife reserve were people’s plantations and Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI) owned by PT Arara Abadi, PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, PT Ekawana Lestaridharma and PT National Timber.

Governor Rachman said that all activities inside and near the areas affected the sustainability of the wildlife reserve.

“From direct assessment in the field, threats of this wildlife are increasing as we found encroachment and illegal logging,” he added.

Reports by Danny Kosasih

Jakarta (Greeners) – Civil societies urged government to increase monitoring and law enforcement to support Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) license implementation, which will lead to improve Indonesia’s forest management.

One way to monitor is following up violations reported by independent civil societies.

Muhamad Kosar, National Dinamisator of Independent Forestry Monitoring Network (JPIK), said that the network had sent a letter of request for an audience with minister of trade to discuss on the follow up of their report.

“However, we have yet to receive any respond on the request,” said Kosar, in Jakarta on Friday (20/5).

JPIK with Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) and Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) urged Minister of Trade to strongly commit on further investigation and law enforcement on companies indicated breaking the law.

Kosar added that the law enforcement was part of the upcoming FLEGT which marked voluntary agreement between Indonesian government and European Union.

“The investigation is not just revising regulations so government can ensure credibility and accountability of the system in the future,” he added.

Executive director of FWI, Christian Purba, said that forest management was not only about sufficient regulations but also monitoring.

“Ministry of Trade can collaborate with Ministry of Industry and Environment and Forestry to review all permits in wood processing industry, including non-producer exporters,” said Purba.

Previously, a joint press release between Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Industry stated government’s commitment to implement FLEGT license on May 12, in Jakarta.

The joint press release was aimed to speed up the full implementation of Wood Legality Verification System (SVLK) which previously being hindered by Ministry of Trade regulation No. 89/2015 on Forest Industry Product Requirement.

The regulation has been strengthened by Ministry of Trade regulation No. 25/2016.

Strong rejections on the regulations have pushed the ministry of trade to revise the regulation.

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo encouraged European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, to immediately implement FLEGT license scheme to support legal and sustainable wood trade during is visit to Europe.

Hence, Indonesia had become the first nation to implement FLEGT License Scheme.

JPIK, FWI and EIA released a report, “Loopholes in Legality”, which revealed violations allegedly done by wood companies claimed as small-middle industries, CV V&V Logistic and CV Greenwood International located in Semarang of Central Java and CV Rejeki Trita Waskhita and CV Devi Fortuna located in Jepara of Central Java.

The report had already sent to Ministry of Trade.

Meanwhile, Nurlaila Nur Mahmud, Director of Forestry Export of Ministry of Trade, said that they were studying and assessing the report.

“Ministry of Trade will discuss and learn about the findings. We will need strong evidence to investigate on those findings,” said Mahmud.

Reports by Danny Kosasih

Jakarta (Greeners) – Forest has play crucial roles of ecology, social and economy for Indonesia. Human, animals, and plants are depending on forest including for water. Unfortunately, the current forest condition is being damaged due to ongoing deforestation. The rate of deforestation had increased greenhouse gas emissions 12 to 20 times leading to climate change.

Satyawan Pudyatmoko, Dean of Forestry Faculty, of Jogjakarta’s Gajah Mada University, said that Indonesia’s forest need to be improved if it wanted to preserve water. Lots of water catchment areas have been turned into non-forest functions, such as plantation and agriculture.

“This is what happens with our forests. If we want to preserve good hydrology cycle, then it would need lots of improvement as lots of water catchment areas in mountains and karts areas have been damaged or turned from forest to non-forest (plantation),” he said in Jakarta, on Monday (21/3).

Furthermore, Satyawan said that some regions have experienced ecological crises, mainly in Java mountain areas, such as Dieng, Merapi, Merbabu, Sindoro Sumbing, Lawang Mangu and Lawu mountains.

Water deficit in Java island, he said, had been at critical level during dry season. To prevent drought events from last year’s dry season, he said that the government must immediately improve forest covers in mountain areas.

In addition, forest use change to mono-culture plantation outside Java has also become the cause of long dry season. The mono-culture plantation exhausts underground water which also similar to peatlands condition being dried and easy to burn.

“Just like robot. Mono-culture plants extract water extensively. It is wasteful and harmful,” he said.

Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya said that researches and investigations over areas turned to non forest areas were undergoing as most of those concessions permits from previous administrations.

“That is what I meant on policy correction. They are all come from policies from the past and lack of control from the government. We granted the permits but failed to monitor. Meanwhile, there are parameters, records and regulations. That is why we’re working on now,” she said.

March 21 is United Nations’ International Forest Day which has the theme ‘forest and water’ which aims to increase awareness of the role of forest to supply water for life.

Reports by Danny Kosasih

Jakarta (Greeners) – Harrison Ford, Hollywood actor who most recognized in his movie as American antrophologist, Indiana Jones, make Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono starring in his upcoming documentary film. The Ford’s new project about climate and forest conservation known as “Years of Living Dangerously”, will be launched in April 2014.

During the exclusive interview for the film, Ford was questioning Yudhoyono about forest conservation in Indonesia, for the sake of climate fighting, says presidential spoke person, Julian Pasha.

“Of course, Indonesia has huge contribution for global environment, specially for climate change and forest conservation. He (Ford) came to found out what exactly Indonesia stand for forestry issue, and in climate change term, how Indonesia has been wished to positively contribute, as what the president told Ford in the meeting,” said Pasha.

For about an hour, Pasha said the president explained his government is take forest conservation issue very seriously, with effort to tackle illegal logging and to perform better conservation. For the president,  forestry hold Indonesia future in economy, environmental safety and the future of Indonesian people them self.

“Indonesia do have big commitment to continue degrading carbon emission, conserving forest, tackling illegal logging, preventing forest fire, against logging in primary forest and wetland, while planting one milliard tree each year,” said Pasha.

The president spoke person recalled how Indonesia does not want “to be left alone” in doing all those greeny things. It means, Pasha said, Indonesia has high hope for developed countries to turn for help as donors.

Somehow, Pasha claimed Ford and the president meeting was fine, thus Ford was asking sensitive questions on loggings he found inside protected conversation area of Tesso Nilo Forest in Riau. Several days before, Ford known to have tense time with Indonesia Forestry Minister, Zulkifli Hasan, for bringing up the topic.

Oscar winning director James Cameron is directing the documentary, together with ex California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Under the flag of Showtime movie company, Ford is narrating the documentary with other Hollywood famous, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Alec Baldwin.

The documenter will tell story about climate change, putting Indonesia and Brazil as its focus spots, as the countries were known vocal in forest related international climate negotiations.

Ford came to Jakarta in 1st September 2013 and has met Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of Presidential Special Advisor Body, and the country’s Forestry Minister during his stay.

Ford been visited two conservation places in Indonesia for the film, Tesso Nilo conservation forest, where he found many illegal logging, and endangered Orang Utan rehabilitation center in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan.* G04