PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Indonesia, as an expansive archipelago nation, boasts abundant land and diverse natural resources. These assets have been instrumental in driving economic growth and resilience, propelling the country to its current status as the world’s 16th largest economy.
Now as president elect Prabowo Subianto and vice president Gibran Rakabuming Raka are preparing their cabinet to take over the government on Oct. 20, it is an opportune time to revisit the structure of President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo administration and review its policies, regulations and institutions which have managed the land and natural resources over the last decade.
Even though Prabowo has pledged to continue Jokowi’s main economic policies, the new government needs to take lessons from the complex challenges and excesses of the land and natural resource governance and management over the last ten years. Most outstanding of the challenges are the overlapping regulations and institutions, the rising wave of land conflicts with the indigenous community, deforestation, illegal mining and other practices of reckless natural resource extraction.
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There are now various central government ministries and agencies assigned to regulate and manage the land and natural resources.
The land management and spatial planning are basically managed by two national agencies: The Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) that is mandated to manage all lands outside forest areas and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MOEF) in charge of overseeing the forests and the land within the areas under forest status.
All lands in Indonesia fall into one of two groups. The first group is forest zone with an area of about 124 million ha, which is two-thirds of Indonesia’s landmass. The forest zone falls under the administration of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MOEF).
The forest zone is further divided based on functions such as production forests covering 69 million ha, protected forests with 29.5 million ha, conservation areas with 27.5 million ha, fixed (permanent) production forests with 35 million ha and production forests that can be converted into other purposes with 20 million ha.
The second group of land is non-forest areas for other land use covering 64 million ha or about one third of the landmass in the country and are under the administration of the National Land Agency.
The biggest lesson from the land governance over the past decade is the myriad land conflicts and disputes between various parties due to the overarching authority of the MOEF which controls around 63 percent of the landmass and acute lack of coordination between the MOEF and the National Land Agency.
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So dominant and overarching have been the MOEF authority in the land and forest governance that it has often issued controversial rules which contradict other line ministries and hinder natural resource development such as tree-crop plantations and mining concessions.
Millions of hectares of licensed land concessions for plantations have remained neglected due to the conflicts or disputes with the rules issued by the MOEF.
What has made the problem even worse is that the MOEF has refused to substantially update the land-use map and stubbornly used the decades old forest zone map, thereby hindering the necessary adjustments needed to meet the changes in the demand for land-use for natural resources and infrastructure development.
And with full support from President Jokowi and without checks and balances, the MOEF has continued to act as a super-ministry. Consequently, the line ministries authorized to govern the country’s natural resources, including Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and even National Land Agency are helpless when dealing with land-use conflicts against the MOEF.
Given the urgency of the problems, it is imperative for the new government, which is now preparing its working cabinet, to realign the authority and function of the MOFE with those of the National Land Agency and the concerned ministries in order to facilitate smoother development of the natural resources in sustainable manners in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
The authority over all matters related to land should be entrusted to a single ministry, namely the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning and the National Land Agency (ATR/BPN). This ministry should be responsible to administer all land-use designation and spatial planning for all landmass, including both forest and non-forest zone. Consequently, the MOEF must relinquish its authority in managing forest landuse and spatial planning.
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The MOEF should be transformed into the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment Conservation, with primary responsibility for effective conservation, management and protection of the country’s land, water and biodiversity in designated forest conservation and protection areas.
The MOEF is also tasked to lead efforts in monetizing the carbon stock wealth and conservation efforts through carbon trading, and implementation of climate change actions to meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
The new cabinet need to have a new portfolio, that is the Minister of Renewable Natural Resources and Commodities with authority in regulating and managing industrial plantations, including palm oil, rubber, forest timber industrial estates and renewable energy.
If it is deemed necessary for smoothing bureaucratic coordination among line ministries, the authority of the Ministry of Renewable Natural Resources and Commodities as one of first-tier cabinet ministries to lead efforts in inter-sectoral coordination, synchronization of the policies and programs pertaining to strategic commodities, notably palm oil.
Considering the importance of the palm oil to the country’s economy and the formidable challenges the commodity have been facing, it is imperative for the new president to establish a new Palm Oil Industry Authority under the auspices of this ministry with broad responsibilities for advancement of an integrated sustainable palm oil industry from upstream and downstream.
It is hoped that with streamlined ministries and portfolios on land and natural resources, including a single lean management of land use and spatial planning, climate change and environment conservation-focused agency and streamlined governance of renewable natural resource and commodities, the new government will be able to mitigate land conflicts and optimize the socio-economic benefits of Indonesia’s natural resources and renewable commodities.
By: Edi Suhardi / Sustainability Analyst
