MoEF issued a regulation for assisting peatland restoration

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) issued a regulation concerning assistance tasks to accelerate the restoration of 2 million hectares of peatland. Following this regulation, technical regulation to implement the assistance task was issued by the Directorate General of Pollution and Environmental Damage Control (PPKL) of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

This regulation is contained in the Regulation of the Minister of Environment and Forestry No. P.61/MENLHK/SETJEN/KUM.1/11/2017 concerning the Assignment of Partial Government Affairs in the Environment and Forestry Sector for Peat Restoration Activities for Fiscal Year 2018 to the Governors of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Papua. With this Ministerial Regulation, agencies in the 7 priority provinces for restoration have a major role in promoting the implementation of peat restoration.

This regulation is considered necessary because the peat restoration program has not been explicitly categorized as a government affair that is shared between the central and the provincial governments. As a result, local governments are hesitant to take a role in the implementation of peat restoration, including in the allocation of regional budget (APBD).

In the Ministerial Regulation, the Governor's duties include synchronizing the implementation of assistance tasks with the administration of regional government affairs, as well as establishing and preparing regional work units (SKPD) to carry out program plans, activities, and assistance budgets.

Detailed instructions on the implementation of assistance activities are then set forth in the Regulation of the Director General of Pollution and Environmental Damage Control No. P.4/PPKL/PKG/PKL.0/3/2018 concerning Implementation Guideline and Technical Instruction for Assistance Tasks in Peat Restoration Activities in 2018. This technical instruction contains:

• target locations and details of the number of activities to be carried out, such as the construction of peat wetting infrastructure, revegetation demonstration plots, and community socio-economic revitalization
• implementation pattern, which is divided into a contractual scheme with third parties and self-management scheme involving Community Groups (Pokmas)
• coordination and facilitation of restoration activities by the Regional Peat Restoration Team (TRGD)
• institutional scheme and division of authority between the regional institutions in implementing the assistance tasks