2 June 2015, Mongabay news - Indonesia's newly merged Environment and Forestry Ministry completed a major  step in its restructuring last week with the inauguration of 13  director-generals, with important implications for President Joko "Jokowi"  Widodo's agendas on climate change, land reform and more.

The new director-generals line up at their inauguration last week. Photo: Sapariah Saturi 

"I think the  transition period of the last six months has been quite heavy," the minister,  Siti Nurbaya, said at the event in Jakarta on Friday. "We persevered through a  difficult time," she added.

Notable appointments include Climate Change  Oversight Director-General Nur Masripatin, Environmental and Forestry Spatial Planning  Director-General San  Afri Awang and Social Forestry and Environmental Partnerships  Director-General Hadi Daryanto, all of whom have held various Forestry  Ministry positions before Jokowi combined it with the Environment Ministry upon  taking office last year.

The Climate Change Oversight Directorate-General  will take the reins of Indonesia's climate change agenda in place of the  now-defunct REDD+ Task Force (BP REDD+) and National Council on Climate Change  (DNPI).

Earlier this year, Jokowi dissolved BP REDD+ to streamline the government,  though some activists and officials have criticized the move, fearing Indonesia's conservation agenda  will languish under the weight of the ministry's bureaucracy.

BP REDD+  was the world's first cabinet-level institution dedicated to implementing REDD+,  which refers to the global Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest  Degradation mechanism.

Nur's appointment "effectively confirms that the  entire climate change agenda will be managed by the Directorate-General of  Climate Change Oversight," Siti said at the inauguration.

The new  department will handle climate change adaptation and mitigation; measuring, reporting and verification of progress; and  forest fire control, according to the minister.

To preserve the  institutional independence and objectivity of Indonesia's cooperation with  Norway, under which BP REDD+ was established in 2013, the ministry will  establish a Steering Committee on Climate Change, led by Sarwono Kusumaatmadja,  an environment minister during Suharto's New Order regime. The committee will  also include NGO representatives, other senior bureaucrats and foreign technical  experts.

As head of the Social Forestry and Environmental Partnerships  Directorate-General, Daryanto is in charge of realizing Jokowi's promise to  allocate 12.5 hectares to "social forestry" or "community-based forestry" schemes, which put land management  in indigenous and local communities' hands through community logging, village  forest and other arrangements.

Greenpeace forest campaigner Bustar Mitar noted that most of the appointees were  old faces from the Forestry Ministry, and he urged them not to operate in the  "old style." In 2012, Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named  the Forestry Ministry one of the country's most corrupt institutions.

Agrarian studies expert Noer Fauzi Rachman also expressed reservations about  holdovers from the previous administration, including Awang and Daryanto.

"This is not a sign of change," Noer said.

"If the attitude is  still toward centralized and elitist decisionmaking that is not open to the  people's participation, these changes won't mean anything," he added.

The  director-generals are all echelon I officials. The ministry now has to name  echelon II, III, and IV officials. There will be 18 echelon I as well as 86  echelon II, 316 echelon III and 769 echelon IV officials.

The newly  inaugurated officials:

1. Bambang Hendroyono, ministry secretary-general
2. San Afri Awang, environmental and forestry spatial planning  director-general
3. Tachrir Fathoni, ecosystem and natural resources  conservation director-general
4. Hilman Nugroho, watershed and protected  forests director-general
5. Ida Bagus Putera, sustainable production forest  management director-general
6. M.R. Karliansyah, pollution and environmental  damage control director-general
7. Tuti Hendrawati, toxic waste materials  management director-general
8. Nur Masripatin, environmental and forestry  spatial planning director-general
9. Hadi Daryanto, social forestry and  environmental partnerships director-general
10. Rasio Ridho Sani,  environmental and forestry law enforcement director-general
11. Iman Hendargo  Abu Ismoyo, ministry inspector-general
12. Bambang Soepijanto, head of the  ministry's Natural Resources Development Agency
13. Henry Bastaman, head of  the ministry's Research, Development and Innovation Agency
Source:http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0602-jacobson-environment-forestry-ministry-director-generals-inaugurated.html#ixzz3dNKDdrM3