huma.or.id– The Association of Indonesian Legal Aid Institutes (HuMa) held its 10th monthly discussion titled “Time for a Change in Forestry Law” at HuMa Co-Working Space, South Jakarta (23/01/2025).

Law Number 41 of 1999 concerning Forestry is currently included in the 2025 National Priority Legislation Program. Valdi, an Expert Staff of the House of Representatives Commission IV of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR RI), stated that the forestry sector is greatly affected.

Valdi mentioned that there is no forest area without its local community, which he believes is not addressed in the current Forestry Law. Therefore, he thinks that the new Forestry Bill will focus more on humanizing local people as part of forestry. Moreover, the Forestry Bill has been in place for over 25 years, so there is a need for more relevant adjustments to address current issues.

He also expressed that Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can provide input by directly sending letters to the DPR, mentioning that Commission IV will gladly receive feedback. He stated that Commission IV is currently seeking input from experts to ensure that the Forestry Bill is based on academic studies.

In addition, Sukman from the TA Prolegnas added that hopefully the inputs from experts in this discussion can be further processed. He explained that the timeline is still quite long, as they are currently gathering data and feedback for the formation of an academic manuscript. Therefore, this is still in the early stages of prolegnas, and they are very open to receiving input.