State Land in Puncak Free for Sale

This article was previously published in Kompas Daily on February 5, 2021. Because disasters have occurred again in the Puncak area, West Java, this investigative report is being published again. The goal is to remind the parties that this disaster has occurred repeatedly.

BOGOR, KOMPAS — The buying and selling of state land with plantation business use rights (HGU) status is easily found in the Puncak area, Bogor Regency. In Kuta Village, Megamendung District, HGU land owned by PT Perkebunan Nusantara VIII (Persero) has been widely taken over illegally by local residents and several public figures in Jakarta. Village officials are also involved in facilitating the sale of the state land at a price of IDR 300,000 per square meter.

Some of the land being sold is located on steep slopes with an incline of more than 45 degrees. The size of the land being sold ranges from 2,000 to 3,000 square meters. As a result, the green areas serving as water catchment zones in the upstream region of the Ciliwung River are easily converted into various permanent structures.

It is not difficult to acquire land in the HGU plantation area of PTPN VIII. Simply visit Kuta Village and express your desire to purchase land to the local residents. Several land brokers will immediately approach.

Simply by claiming to be looking for land on the mountain slopes around Kuta Village, one or two land brokers approached. By a broker named Bobby, the Kompas team was taken to a 3,000 square meter plot of land in a valley with a view overlooking a tea plantation. Bobby claimed the land for sale belonged to Gino, a local resident who had the right to cultivate the PTPN VIII plantation area.

Bobby also introduced another land broker named Agus to explain the process of transferring land in the PTPN VIII HGU area. According to Agus, buying and selling cultivated land in that area is very easy. In fact, he said, buyers do not need to go through PTPN VIII to obtain an operational cooperation agreement (KSO). It is sufficient to have approval from Gino as the holder of cultivation rights and acknowledgment from the Kuta Village officials. "Just go to the village. Later, the transfer of cultivation rights will take place in the village, witnessed by the village head, neighborhood head (RW), and community unit head (RT)," said Agus.

Not long after, a 50-year-old man arrived in a Mercedes-Benz ML Class and joined Bobby and Agus. The man, who introduced himself as Maman, claimed that he was entrusted by Gino to market the land he was working on. Maman also stated that he was assigned by the village head to oversee land transactions in Kuta Village. He mentioned several former officials and prominent figures in Jakarta who had purchased land in the HGU area of PTPN VIII in Kuta Village.

By claiming to be buying land, Kompas had time to confirm Maman's confession to the Head of Kuta Village, Kusnadi. Kusnadi contacted Maman via telephone. Kusnadi confirmed that the process of transferring cultivation rights could be done in the village and every square meter of land purchased was subject to Rp 5,000 for the village treasury. "The transfer fee (for cultivation rights) is at most Rp 5,000 per meter. That's for the village, only for the village. Not for the sub-district," he said.

After acquiring the cultivated land, buyers, according to Kusnadi, are free to utilize the land, including constructing buildings such as villas. "As long as there is money, go ahead and build a villa. I can only issue a referral letter to the sub-district office and the relevant agencies because I cannot issue permits," he said.

The majority of the land that was traded changed function. On the HGU land of PTPN VIII Kuta Village, there are around 10 villa buildings and a religious education dormitory building.

PTPN VIII Director Mohammad Yudayat said that PTPN VIII land controlled by other parties is in a protected area. PTPN VIII has never issued a cultivation permit for all Gunung Mas plantation land in Megamendung and Cisarua Districts.

He said, PTPN VIII is trying to regain control of all Gunung Mas plantation land controlled by other parties. According to PTPN VIII Secretary Naning Diah Trisnowati, of the 1,623.19 hectares (ha) total area of Gunung Mas plantation, 291 ha is occupied by other parties.

It is not only the HGU area of PTPN VIII that has changed function. In Tugu Utara Village, Cisarua District, there is a tea plantation area of PT Sumber Sari Bumi Pakuan (SSBP) which has partly changed function to become a settlement since 20 years ago.

According to the Head of Tugu Utara Village, Asep Ma'mun Nawawi, initially the land of PT SSBP was recorded as HGU Number 5 of 1970 covering an area of 822 ha. When it was extended 30 years later, the area of land recorded as HGU for PT SSBP was reduced to 563 ha. The remaining 259 ha has been converted into residential areas and villas. "It changed by itself because of the occupation. There are villas in it," he said.

The massive land conversion in the upstream of the Ciliwung River Basin has caused almost the entire Puncak area to be in critical condition. From the mapping of the Citarum Ciliwung River Basin Management Center-Protected Forest, in 2018, very critical land has covered almost half of the Puncak area, including Cisarua and Megamendung Districts, with a total area of 4,600 ha.

Satellite image mapping shows that the protected area was still dominant in 2012. However, in mid-2020, cultivated areas were seen replacing protected areas.

Based on the results of spatial analysis processed by the Kompas Research and Development Team, it is known that many lands in the Puncak area do not comply with their spatial planning. This finding was obtained from the results of overlapping land cover maps between high-resolution satellite imagery from the Google Earth application recorded in 2012 and the Bogor Regency Spatial Plan map for 2005-2025.

For example, built-up land in Cipayung Girang Village and Cilember Village in Megamendung District, some of which are located in protected forest areas. Likewise, a number of built-up lands in Sukagalih Village in Megamendung District and Citeko Village in Cisarua District are located in conservation forest areas.

The Gunung Mas tea plantation that was hit by flash floods on Tuesday (19/1/2021), is located in a fairly critical to very critical land area. Since 2016, disasters in Cisarua and Megamendung have not only been landslides, but also floods and flash floods that occur 5-9 times a year.

The Bogor Regency Regional Disaster Management Agency noted that throughout 2016-2020, 97 landslides hit Megamendung, while in Cisarua there were 54 landslides. Compared to the period 2011-2015, the number of landslides in Cisarua and Megamendung increased fourfold. Likewise, floods increased in volume.

IPB University hydrologist Hidayat Pawitan said that the massive land conversion has made the soil's absorption capacity for water in the upper reaches of the Ciliwung River increasingly low. According to him, until 2000, the surface water runoff coefficient in Puncak was already 90 percent. This means that 90 percent of rainwater is not absorbed into the soil and overflows into the river.