Jakarta, June 19, 2017. Monday morning, the Forest Watch Indonesia held a peaceful action in front of the Ministry Of Agrarian Affairs And Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) building. In this action, FWI demanded Sofyan Djalil as the Minister of ATR/BPN to obey the law and implement the Supreme Court’s decision to open the Right to Cultivate (HGU) documents of palm oil plantations.
FWI struggled for almost two years on the Ministry of ATR/BPN to open HGU information in palm oil plantations. At the end of the struggle on Maret 2017, Supreme Court won the FWI’s demand to open the HGU documents. The action coordinator, Anggi Putra Prayoga, stated, “The Supreme Court’s decision has been finalized by permanent legal force. It means that the Ministry of ATR/BPN has to open the HGU documents intended. Unfortunately, it has been three months since the Supreme Court’s decision, and there is no good intention to discuss the mechanism of document submission.”
Based on the data of the National Land Agency of Republic Indonesia (BPN-RI) (2010), 56% of national assets were controlled by only 0.2% of Indonesian, where the 62-87% was the lands. In line with that, according to the Transformation for Justice (2015), 25 groups of palm oil companies owned by tycoon dominated 31% of land or 5.1 million hectares of palm oil cultivation in Indonesia. It means that there is still inequality in land tenure. The structural agrarian inequality was a factor that encouraged the high inequality of welfare. It also causes agrarian conflicts. Then, the problems of overlapping land permits have enlarged the agrarian conflicts.
Linda Rosalina, FWI Campaigner, revealed that it needs innovation in the government, especially the natural resources sector. “So far, the government tried to resolve the agrarian conflicts through land distribution in the schemes of social forestry, customary forest, and the Object of Agrarian Reform Land. However, all attempts will be stuck if there is no innovation in our Natural Resources management system. Information transparency, where the Ministry of ATR/BPN opens the information not only the documents of Indonesian palm oil plantations but also all tenure documents, can be a new innovation. We hope that this innovation will make the public aware of their information rights on Natural Resources management. In the end, it can improve our Natural Resources governance.”
In her oration, Linda also emphasized that tenure and its content (Natural Resources) are intended for Indonesian prosperity. Thus, the openness of HGU documents will make it easier for the public to help the government identify the lands that are suitable for re-distribution to the community who need it. This is in line with the government’s attempt to succeed in the Agrarian Reform program and the agenda of accelerating development. “Actually, there is nothing to lose by opening the HGU document,” stated Linda.
Catatan Editor:
- Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) is an independent forest monitoring network consisting of individuals who are committed to realizing an open process of forestry data and information management in Indonesia so as to ensure fair and sustainable forest resource management.
- The right to cultivate is the right to cultivate land that is directly controlled by the State, within the period as stated in Article 29, for agricultural, fishery or livestock companies (Article 28 paragraph (1) of Law No.5 of 1960 concerning Basic Basic Agrarian Regulations).
- Decision of the Central Information Commission No 057 / XII / KIP-PS-M-A / 2015 Between Forest Watch Indonesia and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / the Indonesian National Land Agency: https://fwi.or.id/publikasi/putusan-sengketa-informasi-antara-fwi-dg-kementerian-atruangbpn/
- Decision of the State Administrative Court No. 2 / G / KI / 2016 / PTUN-JKT between Forest Watch Indonesia and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / the Indonesian National Land Agency of the Republic of Indonesia: https://fwi.or.id/publikasi/putusan-ptun-atas-sengketa-informasi-antara-fwi-dg-kementerian-atruangbpn/
- Supreme Court Decision No 121 K / TUN / 2017 Between Forest Watch Indonesia and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / National Land Agency of the Republic of Indonesia : http://kepaniteraan.mahkamahagung.go.id/perkara/perkara_detail.php?id=b4723c3c-f1cc-11cc-8df6-30393133
Contact for interview:
Linda Rosalina, Campaigner of FWI
linda@fwi.or.id/ 085710886024
Anggi Putra Prayoga, Koordinator Aksi
anggiputraprayoga@fwi.or.id/ 082298317272