Febrianto Adi Saputro, Bilal Ramadhan, Jakarta – The Forestry Reset Coalition is urging the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) to comprehensively revise the Forestry Law given the recurring forest and land fires (karhutla) in several regions in Indonesia.
"Revise the Forestry Law in a comprehensive and participatory way", said Forestry Reset Coalition campaign team member Nisa Rizkian Zonzoa in a statement on Friday August 28.
The Coalition believes that revisions to the Forestry Law should not be carried out partially, but must improve the entire forestry governance system, including transparency in licensing, prevention of corruption and conflicts of interest.
The revisions must also include independent oversight, protection of natural forests and peatlands, permit revocation mechanisms and law enforcement against officials and corporations.
"The revision process must be transparent and open to meaningful participation from civil society and affected groups", she said.
Furthermore, another priority agenda in responding to forest and land fires and comprehensively improving forestry governance is strengthening forest and land fire management and protecting impacted communities.
The Coalition is of the view that the government must ensure that early detection is linked to on-the-ground response through patrols, monitoring, extinguishing readiness and adequate budget and facility support.
"Along with affected communities and vulnerable groups who must have access to healthcare, masks, oxygen, and safe spaces from the smoke", asserted an Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher.
The Coalition is also urging law enforcement officials to investigate not only the perpetrators of the fires, but also those profiting from forest destruction and weak oversight.
Zonzoa also urged authorities to investigate and prosecute corporations proven to have caused forest, peatland or land fires.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Centre for Environmental Law (ICEL) believes that the forest and land fires demonstrate fundamental problems in forestry governance and law enforcement.
Therefore, forest and land fire management cannot focus solely on extinguishing fires, but also on improving governance and strengthening law enforcement comprehensively.
"Forest and land fire prevention efforts essentially begin with the permit issuance process. The government needs to ensure that permits are in accordance with spatial planning and regional functions and are not located in areas with high ecological vulnerability, including peat ecosystems", said ICEL Executive Director Lasma Natalia H. Panjaitan.
Panjaitan added that once permits are issued, supervision is key to ensuring business actors' compliance with their obligations and supporting early detection of potential forest and land fires.
If non-compliance or violations are found, the government needs to consistently apply administrative sanctions.
"Thus, supervision does not stop at identifying violations, but culminates in corrective actions that encourage compliance, ensure recovery, and prevent recurrence", she said.
The Forest Reset Coalition consists of more than 30 civil society organisations across Indonesia including the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) National Executive, Greenpeace Indonesia, Transparency International Indonesia (TII), the PIKUL Foundation, the HuMa Indonesia Association, the Palm Oil Watch Association, Forest Watch Indonesia, the Nusantara Indigenous Community Alliance (AMAN), Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Kaoem Telapak the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and others.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Masyarakat Sipil Desak Revisi Total Undang-Undang Kehutanan".]
