Decentralization of Forest Administration in Indonesia, Implications ...

John McCarthy, Christopher Barr, Ida Aju Pradnja Resosudarmo, and Ahmad Dermawan 41
3.5 Government Regulation 25/2000
On May 6, 2000, exactly one year after Law 22/1999 was enacted, President
Abdurrahman Wahid signed the regional autonomy law’s first implementing
regulation. Government Regulation 25/2000 on the Authority of the Government
and the Authority of Provinces as Autonomous Regions specifies the division of
responsibilities between the national and provincial governments on a sector-bysector
basis. 16
It is striking that Regulation 25/2000 says very little about the specific areas
where district governments will assume authority and responsibility, given the
emphasis on decentralization to the district level in the 1999 regional autonomy law.
The official elucidation accompanying the implementing regulation accounts for this
lack of attention as follows:
The authority of districts/municipalities is not covered in the Government
Regulation because Law 22/1999 effectively places all governing authority in
the districts/municipalities, with the exception of authority that is covered in
this Government Regulation.
In this way, Regulation 25/2000 implies that the authority of district governments
is to encompass whatever authority is not specifically assigned to the national and
provincial governments. Significantly, Article 4 of the implementing regulation
also defines the mechanism by which the central government can resume authority
or responsibility over areas where autonomous regions (provinces, districts, and
municipalities) are deemed incapable of carrying out certain tasks. Some observers
have interpreted this as an effort on the part of the central government to establish
a means for regaining control and authority in key areas if it later chooses to do so
(DTE 2000a).
In many respects, the specific areas of authority and responsibility assigned
to the central government under Regulation 25/2000 effectively reaffirm the MoF’s
theretofore dominant role in guiding forestry sector policy and planning. In general,
the central government is assigned authority and responsibility for setting criteria
and standards for various aspects of forest administration, while the provinces are
responsible for handling elements of forest administration that extend across the
boundaries of districts and municipalities within their jurisdictions (see Box 3.1)
Districts, in turn, are assigned authority and responsibity for carrying out day-to-day
functions of forest administration. This presumably includes the authority to issue
permits for commercial timber extraction and to formulate district regulations for
forest management as long as they do not contradict higher laws.
In the important area of spatial planning, Regulation 25/2000 assigns the
central government authority for formulating Indonesia’s national spatial plan based
on the spatial plans produced by districts, municipalities, and provinces. The central
government is given explicit authority to set criteria for formulating spatial plans for
ecosystem in water catchment areas, and for facilitating inter-provincial coordination
in the spatial planning process. Provincial governments are given authority for