Forestry Ministry agrees to revise forestry regulation

Minister of Forestry MS Kaban said that his ministry would not object to the government's plan to revise the forestry regulation No. 14/2006 to pave the way for mining companies to conduct mining activities in protected forests.

But Kaban stressed the need for the mining companies to first provide the required land replacement before they began their mining activities in protected forests. "There is no problem to revise the regulation as long as it would not affect the government's forest protection program," he was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying Thursday.

The minister of forestry issued a decree in March 2006 requiring mining companies operating in protected forests to pay compensation funds amounting to one percent of their total production. Under the existing forestry law, mining companies are prohibited from developing an open-pit mine in protected forests.

The regulation also said that part of protected forest area can be used for commercial purposes as long as the user provide land replacement twice the size of the land it uses in other location.

The government has established an inter-governmental team to revise the regulation. The team has said that the revision will be completed within two months. (*)