JAKARTA – Forestry Minister (Menhut) Raja Juli Antoni said that the government under President Prabowo Subianto will revive the palm oil task force (Satgas Sawit) which has completed its term of service under the administration of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
“Informally, I’ve talked with Mensesneg (minister of state secretary) about a plan to reestablish the Satgas Sawit that had completed its term of service under the previous government,” Raja Juli said at the office building of the finance and development supervisory board (BPKP) in East Jakarta on Friday, (1/11/2024).
He said that during his meeting with BPKP Chairman Muhammad Yusuf Ateh on Friday they discussed about the cases of oil palm plantations which were found encroaching forest areas.
Menhut Raja Juli said his ministry will collaborate with BPKP to strengthen supervisory and legal enforcement regarding the forest areas and palm plantations, especially the illegal ones. “Hopefully, we can realize this by reviving the Satgas Sawit,” he said.
He expressed the hope that the existence of the Satgas will make it easy for reaching agreements, data reconciliations, and fines over illegal actions of certain players of the palm oil industries.
“I hope we can revive this Satgas soon, so that we can improve palm oil governance and take all necessary actions to solve the palm oil problems,” he said.
But he said that he could not yet identify which regions that should be prioritized by the Satgas. “Currently, BPKP is updating the data of oil palm plantations. They target to finalize the data updating next week,” he said.
Raja Juli said that they are committed to maintaining the state sovereignty and take legal action against illegal activities, including those palm plantations found encroaching forest areas.
“We discussed the very important issue of those plantations encroaching forest areas. I repeat again that we have to uphold state sovereignty. We’ll take legal actions against the illegal activities, by imposing administrative fines based on prevailing laws,” he said.
According to Raja Juli, besides with BPKP they had also established a collaboration with the attorney general and discussed with them about the plan to reestablish the Satgas Sawit. “This is part of our efforts to increase public welfare as envisioned by President Prabowo Subianto,” he said.
Previously, the government under President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) set up a palm oil task force (Satgas Sawit) to improve the governance of Indonesian palm oil industries and to optimize state income from the palm industries. Led by Maritime and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut B. Panjaitan, the Satgas comprised of representatives from finance ministry, agriculture ministry, environment and forestry ministry.
The Satgas based its solutions to the palm plantation problems on the law on job creation (UU Cipta Kerja), especially its articles 110A and 110B. The article 110A applies to plantations encroaching on forest areas but having licenses, which were given based on the laws before the application of UU Cipta Kerja. Through the mechanism, companies are allowed to get permits of forest changes if they fulfil commitments to pay regreening funds. Those fail to comply with the regulations will be subject to administrative fines or have their business licenses revoked.
Meanwhile, the article 110B applies to mining sites, plantation areas and other activities encroaching forest areas and without any license of forest use. Companies being subjected to this criteria will be asked to pay administrative fines or license revocation. (*)
Source: sawitkita.id
