As quoted from https://pwypindonesia. org/, Radikal Lukafiardi, a researcher at Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia, conveyed monitoring results based on the data of Global Forest Watch (GFW) showing that Indonesia has lost 26.8 million hectares of forest or equivalent to 17% of the tree covered areas in 2000. The trend tends to increase from 2001 to 2015-2016 and decrease in the following years.

The comparison of deforestation data according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) with GFW shows that deforestation trends tend to be the same. Radikal also said that the distribution of deforestation that occurred in Indonesia generally occurred on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, while the island of Papua still had good forest cover conditions.

The GFW data also shows the same condition of forest cover in West Papua Province, where the trend of forest cover loss tends to increase from 2001 to 2015- 2016. When analyzed further, using the overlapping method on the forest area function map SK no. 783 of 2014 in West Papua and GFW data, it was found that the largest area of forest loss occurred in forest areas for other uses (APL) of 108,880 ha, followed by 49,290 ha of production forest, 44,740 ha of conversion production forest, 33,440 ha of limited production forest, 29,250 ha of protected forest and conservation forest of 12,050 ha.

To ascertain whether the forest and land loss that occurred was due to extractive industry activities, an overlapping analysis of GFW data was carried out with extractive industry concession data and was initially validated on the Minerba One Data (MODI) portal from the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Resources (KESDM). Of the 13 mining concessions that have Clear and Clean (CNC) status, five of them have been integrated in the MODI portal, while eight concessions have not been integrated.

Then, an overlapping analysis was carried out using data on concession areas with forest area functions and it was found that there are palm oil plantation concessions located in conservation forest areas and protected forest areas, while there are also mining concessions located in protected forests.

Based on this data analysis, it is interesting to know whether the mining concesions that carry out these extravagant activities already have a Borrow-to-Use Forest Area Permit (IPPKH) or not because these activities use forest areas.

The results of the overlapping analysis using GFW with concession areas also show that there have been allegations of deforestation and forest degradation with an area of 4,520 ha in palm oil plantation concessions, 6,400 ha in mining concessions, 6,870 ha in coal mining concessions and 259,850 ha in non-concession areas.

The results of the GFW analysis regarding the condition of forest cover loss in South Manokwari in 2001-2019 showed that the area of forest loss in forest areas was 45% in areas of other uses, followed by protected forest areas reaching almost 25%.

The latest data on forest loss based on indications of forest cover loss for the January-June 2020 period shows that it tends to occur in other use areas and protected forest areas where it is known that there are 3 mining business permits in South Manokwari with 1 CNC and 2 non-CNC statuses located in the protected forest.

However, the results of the GFW data analysis have not been able to conclude that deforestation and forest degradation were caused by extraction activities, so it requires direct field checks to determine the cause of forest cover loss.

Currently, the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources is coordinating with the Office of Industry and Trade of the Province of West Papua regarding companies operating in West Papua. It reveals that several companies that do not have IUPs but have environmental permits are still carrying out production activities, hence the ESDM office currently continues to hold technical meetings to solve it.

The ESDM office hopes that the institutions that participate in data collection and retrieval can cooperate with the ESDM office to integrate existing data.

Joko Pramono, Directorate General of Planology, Directorate of Inventory and Monitoring of Forest Resources, Ministry of Environment, said that he has been monitoring forests since 1990 until now.

Responding to land cover data, the KLHK agrees with the trend of data submitted by PWYP researchers. Efforts intended to carry out forest governance such as deforestation studies and recalculation of land cover have also been done by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Directorate General of Planology.

In the presentation, the KLHK reminded that protected forest areas and conservation partners have filters related to IUP. The KLHK hopes that there will be information sharing at the regional level so that it can be followed up at the national level.

Supin Yohar, Director of Auriga Forests, added that in carrying out forest and land monitoring activities, it is better that the history of forests and land that experienced deforestation and degradation be reviewed back as much as possible as there are issues that are often voiced in Papua, such as forest and land released and allocated for palm oil plantations.

This is in line with the idea of participatory management, where the community can be involved and not excluded, as added by Demianus Nayak Soabat, OASE Papua. Ridwan, from Asia Foundation, stated that parties involved in monitoring need good cooperation, both from the CSOs, and OPD in the regions, so there will be no polemic and that the same information and data can be uploaded on the Global Forest Watch portal and where the community can also be active in conveying the results of their forest monitoring.

And it can be an input for the planology at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to improve the outcome of the analysis based on field results. Ridwan also added that in conducting forest monitoring, one must think innovatively regarding the technology that will be built in the community.

Source: West Papua Tabloid