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Jokowi threatens to revoke firm concessions involved in land disputes
The National Land Agency recorded 8,959 land disputes throughout the country
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Up in smoke: An aerial picture shows land fires in Batu Panjang, Rupat district, Bengkalis regency. The burned down areas are owned by locals, which border concession areas belonging to companies with industrial forest permits. (Courtesy of the Riau Land and Forest Fire Post’s air task force/-)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has warned that the government may revoke land concessions under the control of companies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should they refuse to grant land to residents living in the areas before the concessions were granted.
The warning came as the government carries out a program to redistribute land back to locals following years of disputes between them and companies that had been granted concessions.
In a Cabinet meeting on Friday, Jokowi told his aides to accelerate efforts to settle agrarian conflicts involving households versus companies or government institutions, which occur in regions across the country.
Jokowi called for the owners of land concessions to give ownership rights to local people who have lived in the respective areas years before the concessions were given by the state.
“I have made the order to revoke the concessions if [the owners] are stubborn. We have to be firm,” the President told his ministers.
“The sense of justice and legal certainty must be prioritized because clearly the [villagers] have lived in the areas for so long and they should not lose out to the concessions, which were granted only recently.”
The National Land Agency (BPN) recorded 8,959 land disputes throughout the country, 27 percent of which involved local residents versus the government or Indonesian Military (TNI), while 15 percent were between individuals and SOEs, private companies and other entities.
