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Indonesian plantation firms pledge to give up land to end conflicts
Most of the concessions are located in East Kalimantan and Riau
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Taken from an airplane window, this picture shows the Heart of Borneo rainforest conservation areas in Kapuas Hulu regency, West Kalimantan. (thejakartapost.com/Severianus Endi)
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s the government struggles to resolve land conflicts across the country, several companies have filed requests to give up parts of their concessions to local residents caught up in such conflicts.
After a meeting on resolving agrarian conflict at the Presidential Office on June 12, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told journalists that her office had been making some effort to resolve land conflicts occurring within forest areas.
She said one aspect of this effort involved corporations that had given up parts of their concessions, especially those that were implicated in land conflicts. After companies gave up parts of the land within their concessions, the government could later distribute the land to farmers living on the land thus ending the recurring conflict.
“These conflicts were bad for their business. Therefore, they gave up some of their conflict-embroiled land from their concessions,” Siti said recently.
According to data from the ministry, 13 plantation companies have returned concession land to the ministry, with a total area of around 60,000 hectares.
Most of the concessions are located in East Kalimantan with a total area of returned land of at least 22,917 ha; followed by Riau with three companies giving up at least 15,414 ha.
Most companies are subsidiaries or at least affiliated with giant paper producer Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Sinar Mas Group. According to a statement obtained by The Jakarta Post, the company revised its concessions in “support of the government’s agrarian reform program.”
