Indonesia says 200,000ha of palm plantations to be made forests
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Companies have to submit paperwork and pay fines to obtain cultivating rights on their plantations by Nov 2.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
JAKARTA - Some 200,000ha of oil palm plantations found in areas designated as forests in Indonesia are expected to be returned to the state to be converted back into forests, a government official said late on Tuesday.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer and exporter, issued rules in 2020 to sort out the legality of plantations operating in areas that are supposed to be forests, aimed at fixing governance in the sector.
Officials said the measures were necessary as some companies have already been tending the land for years, although green groups have attacked the government for forgiving past forest encroachment.
Companies have to submit paperwork and pay fines to obtain cultivating rights on their plantations by Nov 2, according to the rules.
While 3.3 million ha of the country’s nearly 17 million ha of palm plantations have been found in forests, only owners of plantations with a combined size of 1.67 million ha have been identified, Secretary-General of the Environment and Forestry Ministry Bambang Hendroyono told reporters.
The government is still cataloguing which of those are found in designated production forests, meaning owners will have to pay fines but can continue to grow palm trees, and which are in protected areas and must be returned to the state, he said.
He gave an estimate that about 200,000ha will be returned, adding that the figure may increase.
“The ones in protected forests and conservation forests, the government wants to restore after they pay the fine,” Mr Bambang said, adding this will be part of the government’s efforts to mitigate climate change.
Indonesia’s Chief Security Minister Mahfud MD has threatened to pursue legal action against palm oil companies that use land illegally after the Thursday deadline passes.
Indonesia has launched several programmes to improve governance in its massive palm oil industry, amid criticism by environmentalists of the crop’s impact on deforestation.
In 2022 it started an industry-wide audit,
