Palm Oil Land Regulation Must Be in Line with Agrarian Reform

The regulation of forest area management needs to be in line with the agrarian reform agenda. Moreover, many regional issues have always been the basis of agrarian conflicts in Indonesia. Thus, the regulation of the area is not only limited to confiscating plantation land.

The government has formed a Forest Area Order Task Force Team (Satgas PKH) based on Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 5 of 2025 concerning Forest Area Order signed by President Prabowo Subianto on January 21, 2025. Since the beginning of the year, the team led by the Ministry of Defense with the Attorney General's Office as the implementer has confiscated land in a number of areas.

In records collected by Kompas, at least 37,745.2 hectares of oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan were confiscated by the task force from a total of 13 companies, while three other plantation companies are in the verification process. In Riau Province, the government has confiscated 221,868 hectares of land from a palm oil plantation company in Pasir Sialang Village, Riau. The land was then entrusted to be managed by PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara (BUMN).

In total, the government has so far confiscated 259,613.35 hectares of palm oil plantations in forest areas or approximately half the area of Bali. Not only that, there are at least 3.7 million hectares of palm oil plantations in forest areas.

Seeing this, the Head of the Campaign Department of the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) Benni Wijaya said that the regulation of oil palm plantations in forest areas must be in line with agrarian reform efforts. This means that the regulation does not stop at land confiscation but also the restoration of community rights to land.

"There must be a spirit to resolve agrarian conflicts that occur between communities and companies. Moreover, there are quite a few farmers' lands and indigenous people's areas that are unilaterally claimed as state forest areas, then oil palm plantations appear so that the conflict is layered," said Benni in Jakarta, Tuesday (3/25/2025).

Unfortunately, Benni continued, the government then handed over the confiscated land to a state-owned company (BUMN). According to him, this way the inequality will still occur and the conflict will not be resolved.

"If it ends up being given to the company, this is actually the same as stepping out of the crocodile's mouth and into the tiger's cage. It does not change the inequality that has occurred regarding land ownership between the community and the company that has been going on for so long," he said.

Benni continued that the government should be able to release forest area claims from villages and hamlets that have so far been managed by the community. If we look at data from the Central Statistics Agency, there are at least 81,616 villages in Indonesia. Of that number, based on data from the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (2023), there are 3,406 villages included in forest area claims.

The Agrarian Reform Consortium has had a Priority Location for Agrarian Reform (LPRA) scheme since 2016 which has proposed at least 589 villages or hamlets with an area of approximately 1.2 million hectares to be released from forest area status. According to Benni, most of these villages and hamlets are located in the national food barn area, such as several villages in Cilacap, Central Java.

"If the government is serious about achieving food self-sufficiency, the rights of the food barn villages and hamlets should be restored immediately through agrarian reform," he said.

There must be a spirit to resolve agrarian conflicts that occur between communities and companies.

In line with that, IPB University Professor Sudarsono Soedomo said, so far forest areas have often been a problem. Unfortunately, even though it is called forest area regulation, only oil palm plantations are targeted.

According to Sudarsono, the government should follow Article 15 of Law Number 41 of 1999 concerning Forestry. The policy regulates forestry management based on benefits and sustainability, democracy, justice, togetherness, openness, and integration.

"Nowadays, determining forest areas is done by pointing, shifting here, reducing here and there. Finally, two-thirds of the land in Indonesia only contributes 1 percent to national production, when will this (country) be like that," said Sudarsono.

Meanwhile, the right to cultivate (HGU) for oil palm plantations in forest areas should not be able to be confiscated due to Constitutional Court Decision Number 34 of 2011 which amended Article 4 of Law Number 41 concerning Forestry regarding areas.

"So, what actually needs to be verified first is the issue of the forest area (not just oil palm plantations entering the forest area)," said Sudarsono on the sidelines of the National Working Meeting (Rakernas) of the Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers Association (Apkasindo) in Jakarta, Tuesday (18/3/2025).

Previously, Coordinator IV of the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Erich Folanda said that until now there are at least 3.7 million hectares of palm oil plantations that are in forest areas. His party, as part of the PKH Task Force, has identified 1.67 million hectares of palm oil plantations that are in forest areas or whose permits are incomplete and inappropriate. Meanwhile, 2.1 million hectares of palm oil plantations have not been identified.

One of the references for the PKH Task Force Team in carrying out verification and enforcement, said Erich, is the Decree (SK) of the Minister of Forestry Number 36 of 2025 concerning the List of Legal Subjects of Palm Oil Plantation Business Activities that have been Built in Forest Areas that do not have Forestry Permits that are in Process or whose Applications are Rejected at the Ministry of Forestry.

From the decree, it was recorded that at least 436 palm oil plantation companies were included in the list, with details of 790,474 hectares still under permits according to previous company applications, while 317,253 hectares of palm oil plantations had their applications rejected.

The application is a business report of each company in accordance with the Job Creation Law Articles 110a and 110b. At that time, the government gave a deadline until November 2023. The palm oil plantations whose reports were rejected, said Erich, were based on several factors, such as inappropriate permits or violations.

"There are palm oil plantations that lack one of the permits from the total set of location permits (ilok), HGU, and forest area release permits. Well, one of them doesn't have it. This is what we are currently addressing. For now, we are putting up those signs," said Erich.

The signs referred to by Erich are prohibitions on activities due to issues with the permits of the companies marked with those signs. This is currently happening in Central Kalimantan, Riau, and other regions. The signs indicate that the companies have permit issues after the task force team conducted verification and clarification of their business reports. This action also includes community plantations located within forest areas. However, up to now, no community plantations have been confiscated or marked with signs.

"It is not that the government wants to hinder palm oil plantations or farmers, no. However, this country is a large organization, and naturally, there are procedures and regulations that must be implemented. These regulations actually provide legal certainty, especially for investors," he said.