Alex Noerdin Asked for Reversed Peatland for Community Harm

INDUSTRY.co.id - Palembang - The government needs to revise the Government Regulation No.57 / 2016 on the Protection and Management of the Peat Ecosystem because it harms the community and does not guarantee certainty for investors in the field of plantation and timber plantations industry (HTI).

The statement was conveyed by the Governor of South Sumatera Alex Noerdin when giving a speech at the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on the theme of Reconciliation understanding and strategy for the review and implementation of PP 57/2016 jo. PP 71/2014 on the protection and management of the peat ecosystem in Palembang, yesterday.

According to Alex Noerdin society is not benefited by the regulation. Moreover, if the regulation is associated with various rules that incriminate farmers and plantation and plantation business actors such as 0.4 m water level and cultivation of cultivated land into a function of protected land which means the reduction of cultivation area that impact on socio-economic society.

According to the Governor in a speech read by Head of Environmental and Land Affairs Office of South Sumatera Province Edward Chandra, he also keeps updating peat restoration map by overlaying mapping of peatland restoration with maps owned by plantation and HTI.

That is, the governor said because the indicative map used by the Peat Restoration Agency (BGR) has a lot of controversy and still needs to be verified in the field.

Inaccuracies of the map will be detrimental to the small community and which companies are included in the indicative map of the restoration, the land and the area must be restored and protected. Therefore it needs a more accurate mapping, says Alex Nurdin.

Professor of Law Faculty of Sriwijaya University Dr. Joni Emirzon, S.H., M.Hum said that the issuance of one regulation must have an academic study, beneficial to all parties, meticulous and not political. This is so that the regulation provides benefits, justice and order for all parties. Funny if there is land that can be optimized for the welfare of the people then banned for use because on the basis of sustainability such as problems in this peat land.

In preparing the rules, Joni said need to refer to the three pillars of the philosophical, juridical and sociological aspects.

Philosophically, a rule should be able to provide a form of legal protection to all parties. On one side of the PP does guarantee environmental protection, but on the other hand does not provide certainty of business for the community and the business world that lives therein. In fact, the management of peat has a high economic potential for the welfare of the community, how they will fulfill their livelihood if the land they can use is prohibited in using Joni word.

In the juridical aspect, it is necessary to assess whether there are higher rules such as the law being violated. If this happens, for example the PP is clashing with the investment law; this rule needs to be revised. Regulatory changes or even formulations should be clear academic texts that form the basis of the relevant rule-making, for example in the determination of 0.4 as the boundary should be clear from which the base, whereas the ispo rule alone requires 0.6-0.8 m. It seems that there are still differences in perceptions and objectives among government agencies such as KLHK with trade and agriculture is there no communication when the formulation of the regulations that accommodate each sector? Joni said further.

The third is sociological whether the society is ready. If the reality of society is not ready, the rule should not be continued let alone forced. Data from the Ministry of Industry stated that total upstream and downstream forest industry investment and upstream and downstream industry investment is financed by domestic loans worth Rp 83.75 trillion and abroad at Rp 193.57 trillion, how is the fate of this loan payment with uncertainty investment climate with the PP Peat. This will be a bad credit that drives the investment rating in the negative direction. Another crucial issue of this peat PP is the potential for thousands of layoffs of labor, another sector that lives from this industry will have a profound impact. Inhibiting regulations in economic development should be amended or revised.

Joni also assessed that the revision of PP No.57 / 2016 needs to be done because it does not have a clear principle and purpose. In an organization of solid and responsible governance of development (transparency) the principles and objectives should be clearly expressed to give a sense of justice, benefit and order.