Policy & markets
Indonesia Rewrites the Rules of Forest Carbon: Inside Permenhut No. 6/2026 and the New SRUK Registry
A new forestry regulation ends a three-year freeze on international carbon credit trading and opens the market to indigenous communities for the first time, while a new national registry aims to make every unit traceable from issuance to retirement.
In April 2026, Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry issued Regulation No. 6/2026, ending a three-year freeze on the country issuing internationally tradable forestry carbon credits that had been in place since 2022.[1] The regulation replaces the earlier Presidential Regulation No. 98/2021 and operationalises the newer Presidential Regulation No. 110/2025 on Carbon Economic Value instruments, decoupling the timing of carbon credit trading from Indonesia's national climate-target (NDC) accounting cycle and introducing two distinct pathways to market: one for internationally "corresponding adjusted" credits, and one for purely voluntary transactions.[1] Four projects, spanning roughly 225,000 hectares, received the Ministry's first approvals under the new rules: three held by forest-utilisation permit holders and one run by a social forestry entity.[1]
Who can now participate
The regulation also widens who is legally allowed to sell forest carbon. Eligible participants now include Forest Business Permit (PBPH) holders, Social Forestry Management Agreement groups, indigenous communities with recognised customary forest status, private forest owners, and holders of carbon environmental-service permits in conservation areas.[2] That is a structural change from a market that, until this year, ran almost entirely through corporate concession holders.
The guardrails
Access comes with obligations. Developers must demonstrate additionality, secure communities' free, prior and informed consent - known in Indonesian regulation as Padiatapa - put in place formal benefit-sharing agreements, maintain risk-management systems, and operate grievance channels reachable through both manual and electronic means.[2] Carbon transactions are also subject to non-tax state revenue levies processed through the government's official PNBP payment system.[2] Projects that were already operating before the regulation took effect are not grandfathered indefinitely: legacy projects must submit a transition report to the Ministry within six months of enactment.[2]
SRUK: a single ledger for every carbon unit
On 9 July 2026, Indonesia's Ministry of Environment (Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup/Badan Pengendalian Lingkungan Hidup) launched SRUK (Sistem Registri Unit Karbon) in Jakarta - a national registry the ministry describes as "the single source of truth for every carbon unit in Indonesia," designed to prevent double counting and safeguard market integrity.[3] The system spans six sectors - energy, waste, industrial processes, agriculture, forestry, and marine and fisheries - and is meant to connect Indonesian ministries and agencies with international registries, running alongside the existing SRN-PPI system that continues to track the country's progress against its NDC.[3]
"SRUK will be the main hub connecting various instruments and actors of Carbon Economic Value, ensuring credible and inclusive carbon benefits reach grassroots levels, to achieve climate justice for all Indonesians," Minister of Environment Moh Jumhur Hidayat said at the registry's launch.[3]
Why the timing matters
Officials have been candid that financing, as much as market integrity, is driving the push. Indonesia's Deputy Minister of Environment, Diaz Hendropriyono, said the country needs roughly Rp470 trillion a year in climate financing through 2030, against only around Rp76 trillion currently available - a gap the government is explicitly counting on carbon trading revenue to help close.[4] "We need to push carbon trading to help address financing problems," he said, calling on developers to join SRUK's testing phase ahead of full rollout.[4]
What it means for developers and communities
For project developers, the compliance bar has risen: registration, benefit-sharing plans and grievance systems are no longer best-practice add-ons, they are legal prerequisites, and the freeze that had kept new international offtake deals on hold since 2022 is now lifted.[1] For communities, the theoretical upside is real - transparent, publicly traceable ownership records reduce the risk of the same carbon being claimed or sold twice, and a functioning grievance mechanism gives villages formal recourse when agreements are not honoured. Whether that promise is realised will depend on how well the Ministry and provincial governments support communities through registration, verification and reporting requirements that were, until recently, designed with corporate developers in mind.
Sources
1. Indonesia clears forestry projects to issue carbon credits after three-year freeze - Fastmarkets
2. Ministry of Forestry Regulation No. 6 of 2026 - Client Alert - GHP Law
3. Indonesia Launches Internationally-Standardised Carbon Unit Registry System - Ministry of Environment / BPLH, Republic of Indonesia
4. KLH Launches National Carbon Unit Registry System Starting July 2026 - RRI (Radio Republik Indonesia)
