New Procedures to Convert Certain Forests for Non-Forestry Purposes

The Minister of Forestry has released a number of regulations to facilitate the implementation of Government Regulation No. 10 of 2010 on Procedures for Conversion of Allocation and Functions of Forest Areas (“Government Regulation”). Amongst the regulations is Minister of Forestry Regulation No. P.33/MENHUT-II/2010 (“Regulation”).

The Regulation, which implements Articles 9 (2), 19 (5), 22 (5), 23 (3), 26, and 28 of the Government Regulation, essentially governs the process for an applicant to request the conversion of a forest area into a non-forest area, where non-forestry activities, such as plantations, can be legally carried out.

Generally, the conversion of forest areas is only allowed to take place in certain forest areas, namely ‘Conversional Production Forests,’ or a forest that is initially reserved for non-forestry purposes.

According to Article 5 (2), an applicant has to request the conversion, while including several supporting documents, from the Minister of Forestry, the Secretary General at the Ministry of Forestry, the Director General of Forest Planology, and the Director General of Forestry Businesses.

The supporting documents include administrative and technical documents. Both types of documents are further elaborated on in Articles 7 and 8 of the Regulation.

Applications are further evaluated by the Secretary General, Director General, and Director General of Forestry Businesses through a process set out in Articles 9 and 10. In the event the application and the supporting documents are satisfactory, the Minister will then issue an In-Principle Approval Letter.

With the issuance of the In-Principle Letter, the applicants are to perform certain mandatory preparatory activities prior to carrying out the non-forestry activities. These preparations include delimitating the granted Conversional Production Forest, and managing the area. The timeframe to complete the preparation is a 1-year period, and is extendable for maximum of another year.

If the preparation requirement has been fulfilled, the Minister will ultimately issue a decision for the applicant to continue its development plan on the converted forest areas.

The Regulation repeals and replaces a number of relevant regulations (Article 22), and has been in force since 5 August 2010.

For a brief overview of Government Regulation No. 10 of 2010, see ILB No. 1309 10/2/2010.