Forest Reclamation - Assessment Guidelines

The legal framework for the Minister of Forestry Regulation No. P. 60/Menhut-II/ 2009 is Article 50(5) of Government Regulation No. 76 of 2008. The Government Regulation deals with matters relating to rehabilitation and reclamation of forest land. The ministerial regulation sets out guidelines that are to be used to assess the success of, or lack thereof, forest reclamation projects. Forest reclamation projects are those that are implemented in forest areas that have been subject to some degree of exploitation. The basic premise of the regulation is to ensure that Indonesian forest areas are maintained at an optimal level.

There are three basic criteria that form the guidelines for assessment, namely: land planning, erosion and sedimentation controls, and revegetation and planting. Each of these criteria is then defined in the succeeding paragraphs. For example, land planning includes refilling areas exploited through open-cut mining. The control of erosion and sedimentation includes drainage structures, drop structures, and check dams. And, revegetation deals with matters relating to the composition of types of flora being planted and the numbers of plants per hectare, among others.

The assessment requires the collection and collation of relevant data and information. Generally, this data and information will be obtained through surveys, reference studies, and sampling, among others. Each of these is then further enumerated in the regulation. The criteria and indicators are set out in Attachment I. The assessment methods are set out in Attachment II to this regulation. The methods provide the detailed technical specifications of what is to be measured and how, along with the standard forms for collecting the data and information.