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Industry will lobby government over peatland clearing license
Jakarta Post - November 17, 2015
Executive director of the Indonesian Forestry Businesspersons' Association (APHI) Purwadi Suprihanto said the government should instead have created a map showing which peatland was off limits and which areas operators would be allowed to manage.
"We have expressed this verbally to the Environment and Forestry Ministry, and will formally deliver our request soon, before the Presidential Decree is released," he told kontan.co.id, on Monday.
A total prohibition would hit the forestry business hard, since some investors, Purwadi believed, had prepared long-term business plans. Thus, some are expecting to expand their use of peatland areas next year, and are lobbying hard for the government to allow such.
Industrial forest plantations (HTI) now cover less than 10 million hectares, with 1 million ha of that being converted peatland APHI data shows. Indonesia has seven million ha of idle peatland, including land for miscellaneous purposes.
Purwadi complained that forestry business operators had seen their expansion plans disturbed by the massive forest fires. If new licenses for peatland conversion are made unavailable, they would be forced to replant their existing plantations.
APHI vice chairman Irsyad Yasman added that the forestry operators have had their morale and their finances badly affected by accusations and smear campaigns regarding the cause of the forest fires.
Despite the investigation into the fires being ongoing, the public have accused forestry companies of starting the fires and some have boycotted their products. "They must respect the presumption-of-innocence principle," he said.
Purwadi claimed that forest fires has decreased Indonesia's timber yield in quarter three by 29 percent, bringing it down to 6.56 million cubic meters, compared to the quarter two's yield of 9.26 million m3. The shortage mainly came from Riau, Jambi, South Sumatera, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.
Due to the clog at the operational level, Purwadi continued, approximately 1 million workers in the forestry industry had been laid off, including many working with partner companies.
"Foreign exchange reserves from pulp and paper exports, worth US$5.6 billion per annum, will potentially drop," he stated.
The forestry operators, Purwardi said, were also worried that banks' confidence in injecting capital into the industry would lessen if the "fire starter" campaign got more traction. (ags)
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