Jakarta, Jan 25 (Antara) - The House of Representatives (DPR) has lauded the government's performance in the forestry sector for successfully reducing forest fires, enforcing the law, contributing to the economy, and mitigating the impacts of climate change.
"We praise the achievements of the government, in this case, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (LHK)," Eddy Prabowo, chairman of Commission IV of the DPR, remarked during a hearing on Wednesday.
The DPR assessed that the LHK Ministry had applied appropriate management practices in the forestry sector, including the management of customary forests for indigenous communities.
LHK Minister Siti Nurbaya had requested that the management of customary forests be conducted professionally and continuously based on local wisdom, taking into account their function.
In a written statement in Jakarta on Thursday, Nurabaya remarked that customary forests must be recognized and managed professionally and continuously based on local wisdom to improve the people's welfare.
The LHK minister called for customary forests to be managed by applying prudent principles, ranging from initial planning, to monitoring and evaluation. Aspects of local wisdom and traditional knowledge hold significance, as a counterbalance to the current era of globalization and modernization that are sometimes incompatible with the geographical, cultural, and social conditions of indigenous people or customary communities.
"This is where the state needs to come forward to provide protection to the indigenous people," she remarked.
The process of sharing experiences and learning about the success or failure of customary forest management is also beneficial in ensuring future success in managing customary forests.
This especially holds significance for the management of customary forests in conservation areas. Nurbaya remarked that the principle of customary forest management is not to change the function of the forest.
In addition to maintaining forest functions, forest stakeholders are obligated to implement the principles of sustainable forest management as well as restore and improve forest functions.
This is mandated in Regulation of Minister of Environment No. 32 of 2015 on Forest Rights.
Furthermore, customary forest stakeholders are required to safeguard and protect their forests, including preventing forest and land fires.
She said promotion and interaction were being carried out by the central and local governments on an ongoing basis. Subsequent coaching or other activities following the establishment of customary forests include collecting data on boundaries, following norms of standard procedures and criteria, and implementing the Local Government Work Plan.
Each customary law community has its own characteristic, so the dimension of its development is also carried out accordingly.
"I know exactly that Kajang is different from Bukit Twelve. That is the way the central government, in this case the LHK Ministry, sees it. The Hill of Twelve and Kajang are very different. I have come alone there and also in Sijunjung, I have come alone; they are different," she explained.
Dean of the Forestry Faculty of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture Rinekso Soekmadi stated that several aspects should be a common concern to minimize the emergence of problems in future.
Precautionary measures should be taken in the face of the ever-changing dynamics or the political, social, and economic situations, with increasing demand for natural resources or forests from outside players and care should be taken to avoid exploitation beyond the capacity outlined by local wisdom.
"The dissemination of global information through popular media (print, electronic, and social) and the increase in population in society also need attention," Soekmadi noted.
In the meantime, in order to minimize problems in future, the LHK Ministry should maintain the good performance it had delivered in 2017.
After all, the achievement was appreciated by the DPR the in meeting on Wednesday.
The Chairman of Commission IV of the House Representatives and member of the DPR's Budgetary Body (Banggar), Andi Akmal, noted that with achievement, the LHK Ministry deserves additional budget, with the amount more than that of last year, which was valued at Rp8 trillion, and in 2016, which was valued at Rp6.4 trillion.
"It also highlighted the achievement of non-tax revenues, amounting to more than Rp4.9 trillion, which is an increase by Rp900 billion from that in 2016," Akmal noted.
The chairman and members of the House of Representatives Commission IV highlighted the need for LHK Ministry to be always strong in upholding the laws, in order to preserve the natural resources as the nation's wealth. Social forestry is also an encouraging development, especially since some DPR members have seen the results in the field.
During this meeting, Nurbaya conveyed the LHK Ministry¿s performance in 2017 in the form of evaluation per activity, according to the budget administration format. She also explained the evaluation and achievements in the objectives of the political function of the Ministry of KLH programs.
With respect to forest and land fires, based on NOAA 18 satellite on Dec 31, 2017, the number of hotspots has dropped dramatically from 21,929 in 2015 to 2,581 in 2017, while based on the TERRA/AQUA (NASA) satellites in the same period, it dropped from 70,971 hotspots in 2015 to just 2,440 in 2017.
Law enforcement for corporations involved in forest and land fire, whether in administrative, criminal, or civil terms, is carried out as a real commitment of the government to crack down on the perpetrators of environmental and forest crimes.
"This is our commitment and consistency made against the perpetrators of environmental and forest crimes, including those committed by corporations," Nurbaya remarked.
The LHK minister explained law enforcement against perpetrators of forest fires. The Ministry of LHK would first grant administrative sanction to the corporation. The ministry had revoked the company's permit and suspended 16 other forest firms.
On the law enforcement against the polluters, the Ministry of LHK has revoked the permit of one company, suspended five firms, issued warning letters to 23 companies, and takes certain measures against 200 others.
Nurbaya also revealed that she continued to hasten the granting of legal access to the people to manage the forest area, through the Social Forestry program. As of Dec 18, 2017, legal access to land has reached 1.33 million hectares from the target of 4.38 million hectares until 2019.
Jokowi's administration has allocated 12.7 million hectares of forest (10 per cent of Indonesia's forest area) to communities, through social forestry programs with community forestry schemes, village forests, customary forests, community plantations, and partnership forests.
In addition, domestic forestry sector investment is up from Rp74.3 trillion in 2015 to Rp148.8 trillion in 2017.
Regarding the impacts of climate change, Nurbaya explained that facing the impact of climate change has become a global problem, and Indonesia has advantages over the other countries, because of its national resilience, adaptation, and social asset, which are very high and strong compared to other countries.
For three years, Indonesia has implemented its commitment as a country which has ratified the Paris Agreement since 2015. There have been many achievements made by Indonesia in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which has become a global agenda.
"Among other things are the reduction of emissions due to forest and land fires, green industry initiation, implementation of new and renewable energy, and various adaptation and other climate change mitigation actions at the site level," she pointed out. ***4***
(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 25-01-2018 19:20:1 |
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