The Deforestation

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In Indonesia, the first causes of degradation are the corruption of political and economical system, and weak of forest governance and law enforcement, like policy of forest management system: logging concession which conducting over exploitation, forest conversion: timber plantation and big scale plantation (oil palm, sugar cane etc). Illegal logging also takes place as the main causes. About 2.9 million ha are logged illegally every year. The domestic and export requirements for timber are much higher than the wood supply. This has resulted in heavy degradation of forests. Other main causes are forest fire. Forest fire in fact causes great problems not only in several areas in Indonesia like West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Sumatra, Jambi, and Pekanbaru, yet, the haze also created fires concerns in Malaysia, Singapore the Philippines. The other causes of forest degradation are coal mining which is practiced extensively in the country due to the need for income of both the local and national governments. Despite the fact that rehabilitation costs of ex-mining areas are not very high, efforts to rehabilitate such areas is minimal.

The impact of degradation in Indonesia is several areas lost their biodiversity and water resources, which resulted in loss of food production in some areas. In 2002, about 46,906 citizens in Samarinda were living below the poverty level and this number increased to 48,137 in 2004 or about 10% the population in Samarinda. In East Kalimantan out of the 2.7 million people, 328,597 were found to be living below the poverty line. The poor population in Kutai Kertanegara increased from 69,100 in 2002 to 75,404 in 2003 of a total population of 480,499. There are also other examples in several regions where forest degradation has caused damage to the water resources. For example is the Manisrenggo Klaten District that is known for its high rice production. The success of this production was due to the weekly supply of irrigation water. Today this area is irrigated only once every month. The impact of forest degradation has also significantly affected the wood supply to the local wood industries all over Indonesia.

The National Movement of Forest and Land Rehabilitation (Gerakan Nasional Rehabilitasi Hutan dan Lahan) has been promoted in 2003 by the Indonesian Government during President Megawati’s reign and planned for at least 5 years involving several ministries i.e. Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Welfare, and Ministry of Education. About 300,000 ha of forest areas have been rehabilitated in the first year (2003) and increased to 500,000 ha in 2004. In 2003, an area of state forests and other land outside the state forests were rehabilitated through this program covering 29 watershed areas. In 2004, the project increased the rehabilitation area consisting of state forest area and outside state forests in 141 watershed areas. With regard to stakeholder involvement in rehabilitation activities, stakeholder also takes place at the operational level. However, the program is not so easy to implement since the enforcement of laws and evaluation procedures are still not strong enough to accelerate the program.

It is suggested that Indonesia has to develop a significant portion of its emissions reductions targets by expanding its plantation program. These efforts require the problems with meeting current, more modest plantation targets and emissions reduction strategy. Nevertheless, it indicates that the expansion of plantations has a limited and conditional place within a land use strategy for reducing emissions. Spatial data about where the degraded land is and whether it can be converted to reduce emissions are an effective emissions reduction plan. Such data should be used to prioritize areas for reforestation and plantation development. To reduce or to stop deforestation both in and outside the Forest Estate, consistent policies and capacity to implement those policies are needed with enforcement authority. Indonesia has a wide range of areas for reducing emissions and these could be used to achieve greater emissions reductions at low cost. These opportunities include stopping or reducing deforestation, peat fires and peat drainage. Peat drainage is connected to areas where oil palm and pulpwood plantations will develop, because peat is frequently drained for plantation development. Some of these opportunities offer possible changes among sustainable development, poverty reduction and climate change mitigation.

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References

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