Jakarta – The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) Chairman Eddy Martono hopes that the Indonesian task force of palm oil (Satgas Sawit) will act as a referee in overcoming the problems of overlapping land use for oil palm plantations and forest areas.
Led by Maritime and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, the Satgas Sawit was set up by the government with the aim to improve the governance of Indonesian palm oil industries from upstream to downstream sectors.
“GAPKI hopes the Satgas Sawit can fairly solve the problems of overlapping land use for plantations and forests,” Eddy Martono said during a press conference on the 19th Indonesian Palm Oil Conference and 2024 Price Outlook (IPOC 2023), which will be held in Nusa Dua, Bali, on 1 – 3 November 2023.
Eddy said that GAPKI has been also seeking coordination with the ministry of environment and forestry (KLHK) and the ministry of agrarian and spatial planning (ATR/BPN) to provide necessary inputs to tackle the land use problems.
According to Eddy, the overlapping problems will be solved based on two schemes, namely article 110A and 110B of the law (UU) No.6/2023, which is locally known as omnibus law on job creation. The article 110A rules that companies owning business licenses in plantation areas are obliged to fulfill all requirements no later than 02 November 2023. The companies will be only subjected to administrative sanctions or revocation of business licenses if they miss the deadline. “But, it doesn’t mean that after 02 November 2023 the plantations will be closed,” said Eddy.
The article 110B sets stipulations for companies which have no business licenses in the given land sites that are listed as forest areas by the KLHK. These companies will be sanctioned with temporary revocation of their business licenses, payment of administrative fine, and or under coercive action from the government. This scheme will only allow the operation of the disputed plantations at the maximum of one cycle since planting season and not allowed for replanting. “On these disputed plantations, we hope the Satgas Sawit will act fairly,” he said. (*)
Source: sawitku.id
