KAJIAN KEBIJAKAN PENGELOLAAN HUTAN LINDUNG

Abstract

Protection Forest is in critical situation in Indonesia. During the period of 1997 to 2002, degradation and deforestation rate in this area doubled than that in production forest. Following this condition, several questions arise as to whether the current policies, law and regulation were appropriate or sufficient to support protection forest management sustainably? How existing government policies and regulation affected the management of protection forest? This report focuses in addressing these questions, and in particular aims to (i) identify government policy and regulation related to natural resource and protection forest in particular, (ii) analyse those policy and regulation as well as their synchronization and concistency, (iii) understand current condition of protection forest,, and (iv) provide input for government policy related to sustainable protection forest, and natural resource management in general. Analysing 83 government regulations concerning natural resources policy and protection forest, revealed that policies and regulations concerning protection forest suatanability remains vague. Despite several regulation including Law No. 41/1999, Government Regulation No 44/2004, No. 34/2002, and Presidential Decree No. 32/1990 have explicitly mentioned the role, function and criteria of protection forest, as well as type of utilisation allowed within protection forest, similar laws still permit use of protection forest for other purposes, including underground mining. Therefore, role of protection forest remain dilemmatic. In more detail, these problems include: (i) gap in understanding similar terminology, involved in managing protection forest, such as: conservation area, forest protection, or protection area, as well as reclamation, (ii) dualism in policy and regulation, in one side, mentioning the need and effort for protection forest sustainability, but in other side there is a room for protection forest exploitation, (iii) there is no harmony in policy between sectors, and regulation betweennational and regional level, (iv) overlapping policy remain persist, (v) underestimation of ecological role and function of protection forest remain exist, (vi) lower hierarchycal order regulation is not referred to their higher hierarchycal order policy. This study recommends some policy improvements concerning protection forests, such as: (i) having similar perception in understanding function of protection forests among sectors involved in managing protection forest, and (ii establishing comprehensive, integrated, and clear forest protection regulations both in provincial and district level.