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JAKARTA– A statement from a non-governmental organization (NGO) which says that the release of a forest area for a plantation for 13 years to certain entrepreneurs with an area of more than 2.2 million hectares is a confusing statement.

“It seems that there are many NGOs in Indonesia that cannot distinguish between forest area and plantation area that utilizes Convertible Production Forest (HPK) that is not intended as a forest area,” said an observer of law forestry, Dr. Sadisno in Jakarta, Wednesday (28/3).

The statement was delivered by Sadino to clarify a statement from which stated that there was a large-scale release of forest area for an expansion of oil palm plantation.

According to Sadino, in addition to not having a designation as a forest area, HPK is a production forest area that is unproductive and in terms of space, the area can be reserved for a development outside forestry activities.

“The NGO needs to understand the regulations first before giving a statement so they would not be mistaken. The legal basis for permit granting for plantation is HPK which is not intended as a forest area,” Sadino said.

Sadino stated that the release of non-forest area for plantation at that time was allowed because the permit was open. “There is nothing wrong with the regulations.”

A similar statement was stated by a professor with an expertise in Forest and Natural Resources Policy and Governance from Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), Prof. Dr. Ir. Budi Mulyanto MSc.

According to Budi, a land allocated for other purposes (APL) is a non-forest area. APL can be utilized for various purposes, depending on the needs and the proposed layout. “It is also the case for the use of APL for plantation, that can be done through selective licensing process.”

It is just that Budi had doubts on the study on the release of forest area of 2.4 million hectares for plantation permit.

“The quantitative data related to numbers of land releases needs to be clarified, whether the data has spatial and location reference. It is better to have a clear and clean data before being published. Inaccurate data is prone to be misused for political interest of certain groups,” said the former Director General of Agrarian Affairs of The Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency.

Budi also confirmed that the release of forest area is not a one party decision. This needs to be understood so it would not seem that the release of forest area is a one party decision made by the Minister of Forestry. Many government institutions are involved in the land release since it is closely related to the spatial needs.

According to Budi, for a land release, there must be a request of approval of the Minister of Forestry because more than 2/3 of Indonesia’s land area is under the Ministry of Forestry. (gor)

Source : id.beritasatu.com