Jakarta – Environmental groups are calling on the government to extend and strengthen the 2011 moratorium that prohibits the issuance of new licenses for the conversion of primary forests and peat lands.

Indonesian Forum for Environment (WALHI) forest campaigner Zenzi Suhadi said that political interests had affected the implementation of the moratorium, disturbing efforts to improve the environment.

"In its regular, six-monthly-revision, the reduction of moratorium-included forest areas often took place. These reductions accommodated the interests of businesses, the forest concession areas of which overlap with the forest-clearing moratorium map [PIPIB]," said Zenzi.

He said the decision of the heads of local administrations to include plantation and mining concessions in the provincial spatial plan (RTRW) forest review had made the situation worse.

Until July 2012, the number of forests converted for other purposes such as local administration office areas or development project locations had reached 12.35 million hectares.

Aceh could lose millions of hectares of its forests due to a new spatial planning bylaw, which the local administration is set to enact.

Presidential Instruction No. 10/2011 on the moratorium resulted from an Indonesia-Norway bilateral agreement to reduce greenhouse gases and deforestation, and will expire on May 20.