Indonesia’s combative new President Prabowo could reset Indonesia’s stance on protected forests
- Inaction over illegal palm oil in Indonesia’s megadiverse forest estate jeopardizes people and planet claimed Greenpeace
- Indonesia legalizes illicit oil palm farms in a program slammed as opaque accused Mongabay/ Hans Nicholas Jong
- Indonesian billionaire family accused of controlling ‘shadow company’ group linked to major deforestation ICIJ/ Carmen Molina Acosta
- Indonesia to pursue legal action against palm firms that use land illegally Reuters
- “Orangutan Capital” Under Siege: New Evidence Shows Illegal Deforestation in Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem Rainforest Action Network
The headlines above are typical of the media stories on Indonesian palm oil. That it is extremely bad for a healthy planet and rotten to the core with corruption and deception. The short report from Reuters said:
Indonesia earlier this year identified 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres) of the country's nearly 17 million hectares of palm oil plantation were located in areas designated as forest.
The illegal use of land has cost the Indonesian economy 42 trillion rupiah in losses, Mahfud said.
"If they violate the rules and don't want to cooperate until the specified time, yes, in November there will be legal action," Mahfud said.
Under a 2020 law, plantations inside Indonesia's forest areas can be recognised as legal if they meet a number of requirements and pay fines.
Indonesia earlier this year identified 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres) of the country's nearly 17 million hectares of palm oil plantation were located in areas designated as forest.
The illegal use of land has cost the Indonesian economy 42 trillion rupiah in losses, Mahfud said.
"If they violate the rules and don't want to cooperate until the specified time, yes, in November there will be legal action," Mahfud said.
Under a 2020 law, plantations inside Indonesia's forest areas can be recognised as legal if they meet a number of requirements and pay fines.
Indonesia’s new President and ministers begin a military-style retreat which includes morning drills. AP
Two issues stand out from this report on illegal palm oil plantations in Indonesia.
Indonesia First Under Prabowo
The new Indonesian government under President Prabowo with his professional background as defending Indonesia militarily, looks set to place Indonesia’s concerns first.
Foreign media had a field day with wild guesses and opinions on how a Prabowo-led Indonesia might lead to bad things for Indonesians.
The only media report that sought to understand President Prabowo's approach might be this report from Time Magazine
How President Prabowo Subianto Is Steering Indonesia’s Future- By Charlie Campbel” with reporting by Koh Ewe/Singapore and Leslie Dickstein/New York
Foreign media and local environmentalists may continue to pound on the evils of palm oil plantations and the associated threats to the extinction of orangutans, tigers and elephants in Indonesia but President Prabowo has indicated that the welfare of Indonesians come first.
In poking fun at media reports that attempted to link his military past to a new no-nonsense approach in Indonesian policies, President Prabowo had his cabinet ministers attend a military-style retreat in full camo gear.
The relevance of tax revenue losses from illegal plantations
Fresh off his inauguration retreat Minister of Agrarian Affairs, Nusron Wahid put his foot down in taking action against 537 palm oil companies operating without land-use rights certificates, amid concerns over tax revenue losses and regulatory compliance.
The emphasis on tax revenue losses must be noted. Indonesia’s hard-earned status as an economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia is facing a serious threat.
Indonesia’s tax-to-GDP ratio has been declining for over a decade, standing at 12.1 per cent in 2022 — just above Laos in ASEAN and well below the Asia-Pacific average of 19.3 per cent and the OECD average of 34 per cent.
Yosephine Uliarta may regard government spending plans in income-based transport fares and free school meal programs as questionable but her opinion may not even be worthy of a flip off.
From what President Prabowo told Charlie Campbell:
“The success of society rests on the wellbeing of your people. You are either with me or you can get out of the way.”
Environmental groups like Greenpeace will clearly have no influence over Indonesia’s land use policies under President Prabowo unless they contribute financially to the well being of Indonesians.
But silencing critics like Greenpeace Indonesia with its handful of employees will require the Indonesian government to look back on the problems it created in Presidential Decree 132 according to an expert on the issue.
Will Prabowo solve the problems created by Presidential Decree 132?
This Government Regulation, consisting of 302 articles, implements the provision of articles 36 and 185 letter b, of the Act no. 11 of 2020 regarding job creation, and aims at regulating: forestry planning; changes in designation and functions of forest areas; use of forest areas; forest management and preparation of management plan; social forestry management; forest protection.
Presidential Decree 132 is a monstrous legislation which grew new arms as Indonesia developed. An expert on Presidential Decree 132, Abdul Aziz wrote in elaeis.com that Prahara Perpres 132 is what gave anti-palm oil groups a severed tentacle with its own mind even as the decree evolved.
In fact, the contents of the Constitutional Court Decision 34 of 2011 are very clear: Determining someone's land as a forest area without compensation can be categorized as an unlawful act!
A massive campaign with the tagline 'palm oil destroys forests' has made this arbitrary rule truly change into a correct rule.
As a result, more than three million hectares of oil palm plantations were easily claimed by the arbitrary rules as being in forest areas.
In a response to CSPO Watch, Abdul Aziz used a simple analogy to compare Presidential Decree 132 and its many revisions to a growing family.
“One gets married under laws that recognize their matrimonial bond. No one questions the legitimacy of their children but when their children have their own children, the state begins to ask whether the grandparents marriage is legal. That makes a joke out of the law.”
What Abdul Aziz referred to is well exemplified by Rainforest Action Network’s latest attempt to shame buyers of “illegal” Indonesian palm oil including Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Mondelēz, PepsiCo, and Nissin Foods, etc as fresh charges of illegal deforestation are made.
Widespread Illegal Palm Oil Production: 653 hectares (1,613 acres) of illegal palm oil plantations have been established within the Rawa Singkil Wildlife reserve, with 453 hectares (1,117 acres) classified as productive. Claims Rainforest Action Network
As Nestle and P&G “look into” Rainforest Action Network’s claims, the question they should be asking should be, was the Rawa Singkil Nature Reserve mapped out by the Indonesian government without the consent of local communities who lived in the area prior to its designation as a wildlife reserve?
If this was the case, then the communities that lived in or around Aceh Singkil may have become an early case of a “green land grab” as described by Susan Chomba & Million Belay in Land Squeeze: The hidden battle for Africa’s soils.
There is no difference between Blue Carbon’s green grab of Africa for carbon offsets and Rainforest Action Network’s green grab of Aceh Singkil. The annual landscape report on Aceh as prepared by the Earthworm Foundation suggests that numerous communities have land tenure claims.
These charges of illegal deforestation in the Rawa Singkil Nature Reserve could become moot under President Prabowo.
The complicated laws under Presidential Decree 132 which have ruled that over 3 million hectares of Indonesian palm oil is illegal may get brushed aside by the Prabowo government as it addresses the harsher reality of inclusive development.
Under former President Jokowi, Indonesia already maintained a stubborn position on not allowing deforestation to define the sustainability of the nation. Quoting previous Minister of the Environment, Siti Nurbaya Bakar at COP 26
Indonesia has criticised the terms of a global deal to end deforestation by 2030, signalling that the country may not abide by it.
Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said the authorities could not "promise what we can't do".
She said forcing Indonesia to commit to zero deforestation by 2030 was "clearly inappropriate and unfair".
Despite President Joko Widodo signing the forest deal, she said development remained Indonesia's top priority.
Will President Prabowo continue the work of his predecessor Jokowi to create a version of sustainable development but give more weight to the wellbeing of Indonesians over Indonesian forests?
How would a new trench from President Prabowo stand up in the battlefield created by the European Union in its Deforestation Regulations?
Would Indonesia’s performance on stabilizing deforestation rates and commitment to the Paris Agreement grant Indonesia a No Risk rating even before the US?
Or will Indonesia look away from the European market to find friendly allies in BRICS markets that are more understanding of Indonesia’s needs to address the wellbeing of her citizens?
Published November 2024 CSPO Watch
- The Indonesian government knows where these illegal plantations are and may have chosen to be “opaque” on purpose as more information is sought on who exactly owns these plantations.
- Indonesia’s concern on these illegal palm oil plantations is not so much whether they were "carved out of forests" but that these undeclared plantations have not contributed to the economy.
Indonesia First Under Prabowo
The new Indonesian government under President Prabowo with his professional background as defending Indonesia militarily, looks set to place Indonesia’s concerns first.
Foreign media had a field day with wild guesses and opinions on how a Prabowo-led Indonesia might lead to bad things for Indonesians.
- Once banned from the US, this fiery ex-army general is poised to lead Indonesia. What to expect By Heather Chen, CNN
- Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia's new president, an ex-military man with a shady past. Indonesia's new leader has been accused of crimes related to the bloody repression of East Timorese resistance fighters during the 1980s, and of abducting and torturing pro-democracy activists in 1998. By Bruno Philip, Le Monde Fr
The only media report that sought to understand President Prabowo's approach might be this report from Time Magazine
How President Prabowo Subianto Is Steering Indonesia’s Future- By Charlie Campbel” with reporting by Koh Ewe/Singapore and Leslie Dickstein/New York
Foreign media and local environmentalists may continue to pound on the evils of palm oil plantations and the associated threats to the extinction of orangutans, tigers and elephants in Indonesia but President Prabowo has indicated that the welfare of Indonesians come first.
In poking fun at media reports that attempted to link his military past to a new no-nonsense approach in Indonesian policies, President Prabowo had his cabinet ministers attend a military-style retreat in full camo gear.
The relevance of tax revenue losses from illegal plantations
Fresh off his inauguration retreat Minister of Agrarian Affairs, Nusron Wahid put his foot down in taking action against 537 palm oil companies operating without land-use rights certificates, amid concerns over tax revenue losses and regulatory compliance.
The emphasis on tax revenue losses must be noted. Indonesia’s hard-earned status as an economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia is facing a serious threat.
Indonesia’s tax-to-GDP ratio has been declining for over a decade, standing at 12.1 per cent in 2022 — just above Laos in ASEAN and well below the Asia-Pacific average of 19.3 per cent and the OECD average of 34 per cent.
Yosephine Uliarta may regard government spending plans in income-based transport fares and free school meal programs as questionable but her opinion may not even be worthy of a flip off.
From what President Prabowo told Charlie Campbell:
“The success of society rests on the wellbeing of your people. You are either with me or you can get out of the way.”
Environmental groups like Greenpeace will clearly have no influence over Indonesia’s land use policies under President Prabowo unless they contribute financially to the well being of Indonesians.
But silencing critics like Greenpeace Indonesia with its handful of employees will require the Indonesian government to look back on the problems it created in Presidential Decree 132 according to an expert on the issue.
Will Prabowo solve the problems created by Presidential Decree 132?
This Government Regulation, consisting of 302 articles, implements the provision of articles 36 and 185 letter b, of the Act no. 11 of 2020 regarding job creation, and aims at regulating: forestry planning; changes in designation and functions of forest areas; use of forest areas; forest management and preparation of management plan; social forestry management; forest protection.
Presidential Decree 132 is a monstrous legislation which grew new arms as Indonesia developed. An expert on Presidential Decree 132, Abdul Aziz wrote in elaeis.com that Prahara Perpres 132 is what gave anti-palm oil groups a severed tentacle with its own mind even as the decree evolved.
In fact, the contents of the Constitutional Court Decision 34 of 2011 are very clear: Determining someone's land as a forest area without compensation can be categorized as an unlawful act!
A massive campaign with the tagline 'palm oil destroys forests' has made this arbitrary rule truly change into a correct rule.
As a result, more than three million hectares of oil palm plantations were easily claimed by the arbitrary rules as being in forest areas.
In a response to CSPO Watch, Abdul Aziz used a simple analogy to compare Presidential Decree 132 and its many revisions to a growing family.
“One gets married under laws that recognize their matrimonial bond. No one questions the legitimacy of their children but when their children have their own children, the state begins to ask whether the grandparents marriage is legal. That makes a joke out of the law.”
What Abdul Aziz referred to is well exemplified by Rainforest Action Network’s latest attempt to shame buyers of “illegal” Indonesian palm oil including Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Mondelēz, PepsiCo, and Nissin Foods, etc as fresh charges of illegal deforestation are made.
Widespread Illegal Palm Oil Production: 653 hectares (1,613 acres) of illegal palm oil plantations have been established within the Rawa Singkil Wildlife reserve, with 453 hectares (1,117 acres) classified as productive. Claims Rainforest Action Network
As Nestle and P&G “look into” Rainforest Action Network’s claims, the question they should be asking should be, was the Rawa Singkil Nature Reserve mapped out by the Indonesian government without the consent of local communities who lived in the area prior to its designation as a wildlife reserve?
If this was the case, then the communities that lived in or around Aceh Singkil may have become an early case of a “green land grab” as described by Susan Chomba & Million Belay in Land Squeeze: The hidden battle for Africa’s soils.
There is no difference between Blue Carbon’s green grab of Africa for carbon offsets and Rainforest Action Network’s green grab of Aceh Singkil. The annual landscape report on Aceh as prepared by the Earthworm Foundation suggests that numerous communities have land tenure claims.
These charges of illegal deforestation in the Rawa Singkil Nature Reserve could become moot under President Prabowo.
The complicated laws under Presidential Decree 132 which have ruled that over 3 million hectares of Indonesian palm oil is illegal may get brushed aside by the Prabowo government as it addresses the harsher reality of inclusive development.
Under former President Jokowi, Indonesia already maintained a stubborn position on not allowing deforestation to define the sustainability of the nation. Quoting previous Minister of the Environment, Siti Nurbaya Bakar at COP 26
Indonesia has criticised the terms of a global deal to end deforestation by 2030, signalling that the country may not abide by it.
Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said the authorities could not "promise what we can't do".
She said forcing Indonesia to commit to zero deforestation by 2030 was "clearly inappropriate and unfair".
Despite President Joko Widodo signing the forest deal, she said development remained Indonesia's top priority.
Will President Prabowo continue the work of his predecessor Jokowi to create a version of sustainable development but give more weight to the wellbeing of Indonesians over Indonesian forests?
How would a new trench from President Prabowo stand up in the battlefield created by the European Union in its Deforestation Regulations?
Would Indonesia’s performance on stabilizing deforestation rates and commitment to the Paris Agreement grant Indonesia a No Risk rating even before the US?
Or will Indonesia look away from the European market to find friendly allies in BRICS markets that are more understanding of Indonesia’s needs to address the wellbeing of her citizens?
Published November 2024 CSPO Watch