Avoid Conflict, Palm Oil Land Control Needs to Consider Spatial Planning

The regulation of palm oil plantation areas within forest zones has begun in various regions. The land that has been regulated is immediately handed over to state-owned enterprises for management. Careful and prudent measures are necessary to avoid creating new conflicts in the area.

Hundreds of thousands of palm oil plantations owned by private companies, located within forest areas and problematic lands, have begun to be confiscated by the state. Recently, in the corruption case involving the Duta Palma group of companies, the government seized evidence from the investigation conducted by the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia, consisting of land covering an area of 221,868 hectares, equivalent to three times the size of the Province of DKI Jakarta. The location is in Pasir Sialang Village, Bangkinang Kota Subdistrict, Kampar Regency, Riau.

Hundreds of thousands of hectares of oil palm plantations are now entrusted to be managed by PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara (Persero), which is a company resulting from the rebranding of the BUMN in the field of engineering and management consulting PT Indra Karya (Persero). In the handover or deposit of the evidence, in Jakarta, Monday (10/3/2025), Attorney General of the Republic of Indonesia Burhanuddin, Minister of BUMN Erick Thohir, President Director of PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara Lieutenant General TNI (ret.) Agus Sutomo.

Not only in Riau, the task force is now also operating in Central Kalimantan. On Thursday (7/3/2025), the Task Force installed confiscation signs on land owned by PT Agro Bukit, a subsidiary of Goodhope, in Kotawaringin Timur Regency, Central Kalimantan. The area of the confiscated land reaches 3,789.9 hectares.

Observing this, the Chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI), Eddy Martono, stated that his organization supports the government's efforts to regulate palm oil plantation management in accordance with applicable regulations. According to Eddy, such regulation could provide legal certainty in business operations. Unfortunately, the regulatory efforts that have been ongoing for a long time have yet to reach a conclusion.

According to Eddy, the process of regulation also needs to take into account the history of permit issuance and spatial planning policies. This is because the issuance of permits and the opening of forest areas were carried out in regions where spatial planning policies were unclear and even tended to be problematic.

"Nowadays, people use satellites, whereas in the past, everything was done manually. As a result, the lines (did not align properly) on the field, and this also needs to be taken into consideration," explained Eddy when contacted in Jakarta on Tuesday (11/3/2025).

If we look at the previous administration era, the current task force's work is a continuation of the previous task force named the Task Force for Improving Governance in the Palm Oil Industry and Optimizing State Revenue. This task force was established by the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment.

Now its name has changed to the Forest Area Order Task Force (Satgas PKH) led by Defense Minister Lieutenant General (ret.) TNI Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin. The task force was formed through Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 5 of 2025 concerning forest area order signed by President Prabowo Subianto on January 21, 2025.

The government needs to take wise and careful steps in implementing the whitening of oil palm plantation areas.

From Kompas's investigation, the task force previously recorded that there were at least 3,374,041 hectares of palm oil cover in forest areas in Indonesia. A total of 237,511 hectares had been issued a release decree, then 913,350 hectares were in the process of determining the decree, while 2,223,180 hectares had not been processed.

The data was taken based on the oil palm cover that has grown in the forest area based on the Decree on the determination of data and information from stage I to stage XIII. Central Kalimantan is one of the areas with the most oil palm plantations entering the forest, with an area reaching 632,133.96 hectares or 1.2 times larger than the island of Bali. Until now it is not clear whether the oil palm plantations that will enter the forest area will be confiscated by the state or only fined according to the Job Creation Law Articles 110a and 110b.

Eddy added, there are at least 436 palm oil plantation companies included in the decree on the determination of palm oil plantations in forest areas, Duta Palma is only one of them. Of the total companies, 230 companies are members of GAPKI and most of them are in Central Kalimantan.

If we look at the Duta Palma case, Eddy continued, the government will find it easy to manage because the area seized is one stretch. However, from the data that GAPKI has, many palm oil plantations enter the forest area in the form of spots only.

"Some are only 50 hectares, some are less than 100 hectares. And most importantly, not all of them are owned by companies, there are also community oil palm plantations that are in forest areas and our records are not small, such as in Riau the number is up to 1 million hectares," said Eddy.

Eddy added that the government needs to take wise and careful steps in implementing the amnesty of palm oil plantation areas. "If it is with the community, it must be discussed properly, because if it is not conducive (conflict occurs) investment will certainly be disrupted," he said.

At a press conference, President Director of PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara, Lieutenant General TNI (ret.) Agus Sutomo said that Agrinas is managing the confiscated land to support energy self-sufficiency in order to achieve a golden Indonesia, while also reducing poverty, reducing unemployment, and improving the welfare of the people of Indonesia.

Energy self-sufficiency, continued Sutomo, is realized by reducing the use of fossil fuels and switching to vegetable fuels, in this case biodiesel which comes from palm oil (CPO).

Biodiesel, which serves as an alternative to diesel fuel for diesel-engine vehicles, began to be developed by the government in 2006. Starting this year, the government is implementing diesel fuel mixed with 40 percent palm oil-based biodiesel, known as B40.

"We hope that each hectare, according to our target, will produce at least 25 tons (of palm oil) per year," said Sutomo.