The business community has called on the government to issue a clarification on the implications of the Constitutional Court’s recent decision to change an article in the Forestry Law at the request of local governments from several regencies in Kalimantan.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin)’s deputy chairman for plantations, Rudyan Kopot, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the change in the law had caused confusion and uncertainty regarding plantation and mining companies’ ownership of forest areas.

“The Forestry Ministry should, in this case, make a clarification to ensure certainty of the status of the land currently owned by plantation and mining companies or individuals,” he said, adding that if there was no clarification, the government could unilaterally take the areas and declare them as permanent forests.