Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over environmental violations that authorities say exacerbated the deadly floods and landslides that struck the island of Sumatra in late 2025.
The revocations follow an audit carried out by a government task force responsible for forest area enforcement after disasters triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November 2025, which killed about 1,200 people across Indonesia's main western island.
The audit found that the 28 companies had violated various rules, including the 2009 law on environmental protection, and bore responsibility for environmental damage linked to the disasters. Authorities still haven't disclose detailed findings or evidence for each case.
The audit results were presented to President Prabowo Subianto during an online meeting on Jan. 19.
"Based on that report, the president decided to revoke the permits of 28 companies that were proven to have committed violations," State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi said at a press conference on Jan. 20, as quoted by CNBC Indonesia.
The move signals a shift in how administrative enforcement is framed in Indonesia, with permit sanctions now explicitly justified by post-disaster accountability rather than routine compliance alone.
The revoked permits include 22 forest utilization permits (PBPH) for operating in natural and plantation forests, covering a combined area of about 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) – roughly one-third the size of Belgium – as well as six mining, plantation and timber forest product utilization permits (PBPHHK).
Among the affected permit holders is major pulpwood producer PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), a publicly listed Indonesian company originally founded by Sukanto Tanoto, the billionaire founder of agribusiness giant Royal Golden Eagle, and now majority-owned by a Hong Kong – based investment firm.
For decades, TPL has been at the center of controversy over deforestation, land-use change, and conflicts with Indigenous and local communities. The latter have long accused the company of encroaching on customary land and causing environmental degradation linked to plantation expansion and logging.
TPL has said it has not yet received a formal written decision revoking its forest utilization permits. In a disclosure to the Indonesia Stock Exchange, the company said it is seeking clarification from the Ministry of Forestry and other agencies regarding the legal basis, scope and administrative status of the revocation.
The company also said its pulp processing operations still hold valid business permits and that all wood used in its mills comes from plantation forests within its own concession areas. TPL warned that if the revocation is enforced, it could disrupt raw material supply, operations and the livelihoods of workers and surrounding communities that depend on the company's activities.
Batang Toru
The revoked permits also include those of two companies operating in Batang Toru, a fragile ecosystem that contains some of Sumatra's last remaining intact forests and is home to the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), the world's rarest great ape species, which was only described by science in 2017.
The affected companies are hydropower developer PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE) and gold mine operator PT Agincourt Resources (AR).
NSHE, an Indonesian company developing a large hydropower project in Batang Toru with Chinese funding, has drawn controversy from the very beginning. Critics contend the project is courting disaster due to its location on steep, landslide-prone terrain that overlaps with the only remaining natural corridor linking fragmented populations of Tapanuli orangutans.
Environmental groups and scientists have repeatedly urged the government to halt the project, citing risks to biodiversity and geological stability.
In 2018, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke NSHE's environmental permit. The group argued that the project's environmental impact assessment (Amdal) was flawed because it focused narrowly on the construction footprint, failed to assess broader ecological impacts, and didn't adequately consider earthquake risks despite the dam's location along the Great Sumatran Fault.
An administrative court in North Sumatra rejected the lawsuit in 2019, ruling that the project's assessments met legal requirements. Construction continued, and by November 2025 nearly 90% of the project had been completed, with operations scheduled to begin later this year.
Following the revocation, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said NSHE has applied for a re-audit of its permit. The ministry's director general for renewable energy, Eniya Listiyani Dewi, said the request is being processed in coordination with the Environment Ministry.
Under existing rules, she said, developers are required to carry out environmental remediation amounting to more than the damage caused, including restoring tree cover beyond pre-project levels.
If those conditions are met, the permit could be reconsidered.
The ministry has said the Batang Toru hydropower plant remains strategically important for Indonesia's renewable energy targets, with a planned commercial operation date in October 2026.
Gold mine under scrutiny
The other company operating in Batang Toru that had its license revoked is PT Agincourt Resources, a subsidiary of U.K.-based conglomerate Jardine Matheson. Agincourt operates the Martabe gold mine, which, like NHSE's hydropower project, has faced sustained scrutiny from environmental groups over forest clearance and its potential impacts on watershed stability within and around the Batang Toru ecosystem.
In late November 2025, Agincourt announced on its website that it would move ahead with its plan to expand mining operations north of its existing footprint – coinciding with the devastating floods and landslides that hit the Batang Toru area.
Agincourt has said it has not yet received official notification of the permit revocation. Senior corporate communications manager Katarina Siburian Hardono said the company learned of the decision through media reports and therefore could not comment in detail.
She said the company respects government decisions while safeguarding its rights under Indonesian law, and reiterated Agincourt's commitment to good corporate governance and regulatory compliance.
When Cyclone Senyar brought torrential rain to northern Sumatra, Batang Toru was among the worst-affected parts of Sumatra. Landslides destroyed large areas of forest and orangutan habitat, intensifying concerns that extreme weather events are pushing the already small Tapanuli orangutan population closer to collapse.
Investigations by civil society organizations have linked land clearing and infrastructure development within the NSHE and Agincourt concessions to increased runoff, erosion and slope instability. They contend that these factors worsened the severity of flooding and landslides during the disaster.
With the hydropower project nearing completion and the Martabe mine planning further expansion, environmental groups welcomed the government's decision to revoke their licenses as long overdue.
"This is the news we have been waiting for – and the deep breath the Batang Toru ecosystem desperately needed," said Amanda Hurowitz, forest commodities lead at U.S.-based campaign group Mighty Earth.
Civil society response
The permit revocations came a day after the government announced civil lawsuits against six companies, including TPL, NSHE and Agincourt, seeking 4.8 trillion rupiah ($284 million) in environmental damages linked to the disasters.
Taken together, the permit revocations and lawsuits represent "a pivotal moment for the people of Batang Toru and for its wildlife, particularly the world's rarest great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan," Hurowitz said.
Greenpeace Indonesia also welcomed the revocations, but said they leave unresolved questions about transparency and follow-through. Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Sekar Banjaran Aji said the government has yet to explain how it conducted its investigations or what indicators it used to justify revoking specific permits – details she said should be made public to allow independent scrutiny of enforcement decisions.
"Without such clarity, this enforcement action will be difficult for the public to monitor," she said in a press release.
What's next?
The government has framed its post-disaster actions as part of a broader commitment to environmental protection. Environmental groups say the measures will only be meaningful if they are followed by concrete restoration plans.
"Permit revocation will have no meaning without a restoration plan," said Walhi executive director Boy Jerry Even Sembiring. "After decades of causing damage and extracting enormous profits from forests and nature in Aceh and North Sumatra [provinces], these companies must be forced to restore environmental losses and the losses suffered by communities."
In Batang Toru, restoration is seen as particularly urgent. Years of encroachment and industrial expansion have left only 2.5% of the ecosystem's original orangutan habitat intact.
"The Indonesian government must now act to permanently end any further deforestation," Hurowitz said. "And it must begin restoring the damage that has been done – to prevent further loss of human life and to secure a future for the Tapanuli orangutan."
Deputy Environment Minister Diaz Faisal Malik Hendropriyono said his office will push for environmental restoration to ensure adequate environmental carrying capacity as the next steps after the permit revocation.
"We want to reaffirm that we remain committed to continuing the protection and management of the environment," he said at a press conference in Jakarta on Jan. 21.
Greenpeace warned against repeating past practices in which revoked concessions were later transferred to other companies, including state-owned enterprises – a pattern seen in recent seizures of illegal plantations and mines, where large areas were later handed over to state plantation firm Agrinas.
"This pattern merely shifts land control from private corporations to the state, but still follows a business-oriented logic, without a strong commitment to restoring damaged ecosystems," Sekar said.
In the case of TPL, Walhi has urged the government not to repeat what happened in 1999, when the company's operations were halted amid public opposition, only to resume in 2002 under a new name. This time, Walhi North Sumatra executive director Rianda Purba said, the government must redistribute former concession areas to Indigenous communities that have been in conflict with the company since the 1980s, and ensure that TPL carries out its environmental restoration obligations.
When asked what will happen to projects like the Batang Toru hydropower plant, which is about to go into operation, the environment ministry's secretary, Rosa Vivien Ratnawati, said the government will carry out strategic environmental assessment first before making any decision. She added the assessment is needed to fully understand the current condition of the environment and what needs to be done.
What's clear is that with the permits revoked, the companies can no longer operate, Rosa said.
Greenpeace noted that several companies operating in disaster-prone river basins in Sumatra remain untouched by the current enforcement push.
The group cited PT Tusam Hutani Lestari in Aceh as one example of a company operating in a critical watershed whose permit hasn't been revoked, despite evidence that deforestation and land-use change across Sumatra's river basins have sharply reduced the island's resilience to extreme rainfall.
Greenpeace said Sumatra's vulnerability to flooding and landslides has been compounded by decades of forest loss and land-cover change, particularly in river basins, where natural forest cover has fallen below 25%.
Without a broader moratorium on extractive activity in critical watersheds and large-scale reforestation, especially upstream areas, disasters like those triggered by Cyclone Senyar are likely to occur again, said Arie Rompas, Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaign team leader.
"Thousands of lives have already been lost to disasters," he said. "The government must place public safety above economic profit."