Riani Sanusi Putri, Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment or Walhi commented on the government's plan of bleaching or pardoning 3.3 million hectares of oil palm land in forest areas through articles 110 A and 110 B of the Job Creation Law, as stated by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan last week.
Walhi's executive forest and garden campaign manager, Uli Arta Siagian, said that the forgiveness of forestry crimes committed by palm oil corporations carrying out illegal activities in forest areas shows the government's weakness in enforcing the law.
Instead of upholding the law, he said, the government actually pardoned the crimes of thousands of legal entities through articles 110 A and 110 B of the Job Creation Law. Ninety percent of these environmental crimes, according to Walhi, are committed by palm oil corporations.
"This is a form of defeat by the state from corporations, and is a neglect of environmental crimes that have been committed by corporations," Uli told Tempo on Tuesday, June 27.
The results of an audit of the palm oil industry conducted by the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) revealed that there are 3.3 million hectares of oil palm land in forest areas. The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan claimed that the bleaching out or legalization of 3.3 million palm oil palms in forest areas could boost state revenues and that the state is "forced" to whitewash these plantations.
"What else are we supposed to do? Do we have to uproot the palm trees? We just have to be logical and have to do bleaching," Luhut said after a press conference on Friday, June 23.
Luhut, who is also the Chief Executive of the Oil Palm Task Force said that this problem must be resolved according to the mechanism of the Job Creation Law, which stipulates that companies with existing business activities in production forest areas are able to request bleaching, meaning they can keep their operations after paying administrative fines. Thus, the companies' oil palm land in forest areas becomes legal, provided they pay their taxes according to the provisions stipulated in the Job Creation Law.
The government has formed a Task Force for the Improvement of Governance of the Palm Oil Industry and Optimization of State Revenues. It will be tasked to deal with the bleaching of oil palm land in forest areas and help speed up the determination of Articles 110A and 110 for each existing case.