The minister of forestry has issued the implementation regulations for the Article 51, Paragraph 6 of Government Regulation 76/2008 regarding Forest Rehabilitation and Reclamation, as packaged under Regulation of the Minister of Forestry P4/Menhut-II/2011 regarding Guidelines for Forest Reclamation (Regulation P4/2011).
Article 2 of Regulation P4/2011 sets out the following basic reclamation principles:
- Reclamation activities and mining activities are inter-related and must be treated as one activity.
- Reclamation activities must be carried out as early as possible without waiting for the completion of the mining activities.
The guidelines cover the following topics:
- location inventory;
- location designation;
- reclamation planning;
- reclamation implementation;
- organisation;
- supervision and technical guidance;
- mechanism for the implementation reports; and
- sanctions.
Forest licence holders are required to prepare a five-year reclamation plan that is further broken down into annual plans. Each annual plan must specify, among others things, schedule, budget and the reclamation activities (eg, land arrangement, refilling of ex-mining holes, erosion control and sedimentation, re-vegetation).It must include an annual reclamation plan map with a minimum scale of 1:10,000. The reclamation activities must be completed at least one year before the expiration of the forest utilisation permit.
Non-complying licence holders face the sanctions stipulated under Article 79 and Article 80 of Regulation P4/2011.
Regulation P4/2011 came into effect on January 18 2011 and revokes the minister of forestry and Plantation's Regulation 146/Kpts-II/1999 regarding the Reclamation Guidelines for Ex-mining Sites in Forest Areas.
For further information on this topic please contact Hamud Balfas at Ali Budiardjo, Nugroho, Reksodiputro by telephone (+62 21 250 5125), fax (+62 21 250 5121) or email ([email protected]).
This update was also prepared by Maher Asmoro Putra Sasongko.