Carbon Business Licensing in Conservation Areas: PERMENHUT 7/2026

The Minister of Forestry has issued Peraturan Menteri Kehutanan Republik Indonesia Nomor 7 Tahun 2026 tentang Perubahan atas Peraturan Menteri Kehutanan Nomor 27 Tahun 2025 tentang Pemanfaatan Jasa Lingkungan pada Kawasan Suaka Alam, Kawasan Pelestarian Alam, dan Taman Buru (an amendment to the 2025 regulation on the utilization of environmental services in nature sanctuary areas, nature conservation areas, and hunting parks). The amendment concentrates on the business licensing of carbon environmental services, abbreviated in the regulation as PB-PJL Karbon: how applications are filed, how the associated non-tax state revenue is paid, and which conditions attach to carbon trading in the conservation estate.

The parent regulation, Permenhut 27/2025, opened conservation areas to licensed environmental-services ventures, with carbon projects among them. The 2026 amendment rewrites several of the licensing and payment articles, including Pasal 495, Pasal 501, Pasal 510, and Pasal 511, to align the application route, the revenue obligations, and the trading conditions with the wider rules on non-tax state revenue and the carbon economic value framework.

Pasal 495 sets the application path. A business actor applies for a PB-PJL Karbon license to the Minister, governor, or regent/mayor according to their respective authority, through the OSS electronic licensing system. The application carries six document requirements: a principle approval; the environmental approval and its documents; minutes of boundary marking with a boundary map at a scale of at least 1:25,000, signed by the applicant and regional technical staff and endorsed by the head of the relevant technical unit or service; a map of the proposed working area at a scale of at least 1:10,000 with a digital shapefile copy; the carbon environmental-services utilization plan (RP-PJL Karbon); and proof of payment of the non-tax state revenue or regional retribution. Where the tariff rules for the carbon levy have not yet been enacted, Pasal 495 ayat (3) lets the applicant substitute a written commitment, in the form of an integrity pact, to pay once the license is issued.

Pasal 501 details the payment leg. The proof of payment covers either the PB-PJL Karbon levy in national parks, nature tourism parks, and hunting parks, or a regional retribution in grand forest parks. The levy is the first-year charge set under the non-tax state revenue rules for the forestry sector. Applicants must pay within 24 days of receiving a payment order from the Director General or the provincial or district service, and a payment is valid only when the payment code on the transfer or deposit slip matches the code in the PNBP Online system. If an application is rejected after payment, the levy or retribution is returned under the applicable rules.

Pasal 510 lists the conditions for carbon trading under a PB-PJL Karbon license. Trades must follow the forestry-sector carbon trading roadmap and meet eligibility tests of additionality, permanence, and leakage prevention. License holders must have fulfilled the obligations in their license decree, including annual work plans and reporting on ecosystem recovery and area protection. Offset mechanisms in nature conservation areas are limited to natural carbon removal, sequestration, or other categories permitted by law. The article further requires an assessment of biodiversity and social impacts, the application of free, prior and informed consent, safeguard mechanisms, benefit sharing among the license holder, the conservation management unit, and local communities under terms set by the Director General, demonstrated competence in environmental, social, and governance principles, and qualification in the administration of carbon economic value (NEK) instruments.

For applicants, the amendment defines a single documented route through OSS with a fixed payment window; for communities around conservation areas, it writes consent and benefit-sharing requirements into the trading conditions themselves.

Regulatory Context

The amendment operates within the spatial allocation set by the National Forestry Plan 2011-2030, which records carbon absorption targets among the reasons for its 2026 revision. The environmental approvals required in the application file are, in turn, subject to the environment administration's rules on supervision and administrative sanctions.

Read the full regulation in the CRPG Law Database.

Methodology: This memo summarises the official regulation text and is not legal advice; report corrections to contact@crpg.info.

Disclaimer

This article was AI-generated under an experimental legal-AI application. It may contain errors, inaccuracies, or hallucinations. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice or authoritative interpretation of regulations.

We accept no liability whatsoever for any decisions made based on this article. Readers are strongly advised to:

• Consult the official regulation text from government sources
• Seek professional legal counsel for specific matters
• Verify all information independently

This experimental AI application is designed to improve access to regulatory information, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed.