Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia has reclaimed more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres, about the size of Switzerland) of land nationwide that had been used for plantations, mining or other activities inside areas officially designated as forest, according to the government.
The ongoing crackdown – the country's most sweeping enforcement drive to date against illegal activities in forest areas – is being carried out by a task force established by President Prabowo Subianto in January 2025, involving the military, police, prosecutors and multiple ministries.
Officials say the task force initially targeted 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land to seize in 2025, and thus it has exceeded its initial target by more than 400% within its first 10 months of operation.
But the unprecedented scale of the seizures has also exposed unresolved questions about the data underpinning the campaign, how much of the land involved is actually oil palm, and what will happen to seized plantations and mines after enforcement.
The reclaimed areas span mostly oil palm plantations as well as mining concessions – primarily nickel and coal – and conservation zones such as national parks and protected forests.
Enforcement actions cited by authorities include oil palm plantations operating without proper forest-area permits, mining operations lacking approval for forest-area use, unlicensed gold mining, illegal tourism structures inside conservation areas and oil palm encroachment inside national parks.
Questions about the numbers
The scale of the government's forest enforcement drive has raised questions about how many oil palm plantations in Indonesia are actually illegal.
In 2019, the environment ministry calculated that roughly 3.4 million hectares (8.3 million acres) of oil palm plantations overlapped with areas officially designated as forest. That figure has long been cited as the baseline estimate of oil palm plantations operating inside forest zones.
President Prabowo, however, has described the more than 4 million hectares already seized as only the beginning, saying the government could take over another 4-5 million hectares (up to 12.3 million acres) this year on the grounds that forest encroachment has gone on for decades.
If realized, the total area seized or targeted would approach 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres).
Such a figure would imply that more than half of Indonesia's roughly 17 million hectares (42 million acres) of oil palm plantations are problematic – a conclusion the government has neither explicitly stated nor explained.
Officials say the seized land includes not only oil palm plantations but also mining sites.
However, mining concessions in Indonesia cover a far smaller area than oil palm estates, leaving unanswered questions about how much of the seized land is actually oil palm – and on what legal basis it is classified as unlawful.
This is where a lack of transparency becomes critical, said Achmad Surambo, executive director of watchdog group Sawit Watch.
"The public only sees the numbers, but we don't know what lies behind them," Surambo told Mongabay. "Before, it was 3.37 million hectares. Now suddenly it's 4 million hectares. So where does the data cited by the president come from? If this isn't explained, the number can keep growing."
Lingering questions after seizure
So far, the government has disclosed only the total size of areas seized and the fines collected from companies operating illegally in forest areas.
The task force has recovered about 2.3 trillion rupiah (about $136 million) in administrative fines, collected from 20 oil palm companies and one nickel mining company.
The funds were formally handed over to the finance ministry during a ceremony in Jakarta on Dec. 24, 2025, where stacks of cash were displayed to demonstrate the scale of the recovered assets.
At the same event, the task force led by the Attorney General's Office also transferred more than roughly 4.3 trillion rupiah ($255 million) recovered from unrelated corruption cases, including crude palm oil export and sugar import scandals.
Officials say administrative sanctions are being prioritized, although criminal prosecution remains an option for companies that refuse to cooperate or fail to pay fines.
What remains unclear, observers say, is what the collected money will be used for – and what will happen to the seized plantations and mines themselves.
A 2025 presidential regulation that serves as the legal basis for reclaiming forest land used unlawfully outlines penalties and enforcement mechanisms but does not spell out a detailed system for what happens after land is seized.
Decisions on post-seizure management, permits and land use are left to other laws and administrative processes, a lack of clarity that civil society groups say creates room for abuse and opacity.
In practice, large portions of seized plantation land have been handed over to state-owned palm oil company PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara for management.
About 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of seized plantations have so far been transferred to Agrinas, rapidly expanding the firm from a minor state entity into the world's largest palm oil company by land area.
Other areas have been returned to the Ministry of Forestry for restoration, including 688,427 hectares (1.7 million acres) of conservation forest and 81,793 hectares (202,000 acres) inside Tesso Nilo National Park in Riau province, Sumatra.
Based on figures disclosed so far, this represents less than a fifth of the total area seized by the task force.
Meanwhile, the rest of the seized lands – around 1.6 million hectares (almost 4 million acres) of forest areas – are still undergoing verification and law enforcement processes, according to Barita Simanjuntak, the task force spokesperson.
These lands will be formally handed over to the state after all administrative and legal procedures are completed, he said.
Where is the restoration?
The limited share of land earmarked for restoration highlights how discussions about repairing forest ecosystems cleared for oil palm remain marginal, said Ahmad Zazali, head of the Center for Law and Conflict Resolution known as Puraka.
"The debate is about economics – how much the state has lost. Even that raises questions, because can those losses really be recovered?" he said. "But what about the forests that have already been cleared?"
Zazali said the government should prioritize ecosystem restoration, warning that forest conversion for oil palm undermines biodiversity and weakens forests' role in buffering floods and landslides – risks that are particularly acute in peatland areas.
Surambo also pointed out that ecological restoration is explicitly listed as one of the task force's mandates under the presidential regulation.
"To date, the task force has seized millions of hectares, but ecological restoration has been neglected," he said. "Administrative fines and land takeover are being carried out, but restoration is not."
With most seized land transferred to Agrinas, it remains unclear which areas, if any, are designated for ecological recovery, Surambo added. He warned that continued monoculture oil palm planting could entrench environmental damage under state management.
"Our concern is that areas with critical ecological functions could be lost once they're handed over to Agrinas," he said. "Maintaining oil palm on seized land only perpetuates the problem."
Kusdi Sastro Kidjan, deputy president director of Agrinas Palma Nusantara, said the company plans to manage all oil palm land it has received, primarily through operational partnerships with communities, prioritizing previous landholders.
"The previous owners are prioritized, so there is continuity," he said. "They already have workers and systems in place."
Agrinas, he added, would apply best practices and allocate at least 20% of managed land as plasma for communities.
But as long as forest ecosystems remain unrestored, Surambo said, the task force's job is incomplete.
"Right now there's a sense of euphoria – that the state has taken over oil palm," he said. "But if restoration hasn't happened, the problem hasn't been solved."
Risks of new conflicts
The absence of a clear post-seizure blueprint also raises the risk of conflict, Surambo warned, noting reports of rising tensions following the transfer of land to Agrinas.
"Transferring land to a state-owned company without verifying overlaps with customary territories or smallholder land risks creating new conflicts," he said.
Difa Shafira, head of forestry and biodiversity at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), pointed to a clause on "state asset repossession" in the presidential regulation that allows land to be taken over without prior verification of ownership or community rights – a provision she said does not exist in prevailing forest laws.
"This gives the task force legitimacy to seize assets without checking whether communities live or farm there," she said.
Zazali added that communities have not been systematically involved in identifying or verifying plantations inside forest areas, creating anxiety – particularly where smallholder land has also been seized.
Concerns are compounded by the task force's security-heavy composition, dominated by military, police and intelligence officers and led by Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, a former general.
Surambo said this makes dialogue with affected communities all the more essential.
"It can't be militaristic," he said. "It has to be resolved with dignity and with free, prior and informed consent."
Putut Witjaksono Hadi, a member of the task force, said the operation targets forest land that has been illegally converted, not community-owned plantations. Communities that believe their land was wrongly seized can report their cases to the task force, he said.
In Tesso Nilo National Park, Putut added, communities that cleared forest for oil palm are being prepared for relocation and alternative livelihoods while restoration takes place.
"President Prabowo's message is that there must be no conflict with communities or customary forests," he said.
To make sure the land seize program doesn't come at the expense of Indigenous peoples and local communities as well as environmental restoration, transparency and meaningful involvement of civil society is a must, Surambo of Sawit Watch said.
"We demand transparency and meaningful involvement of civil society so that national palm oil governance reform truly delivers justice for ordinary people, not merely a redistribution of power among elites," he said.