InfoSAWIT, BOGOR – “Bleaching or mercy” for palm oil plantations where were illegally planted in forest regions would happen because of the publication of Undang-Undang Cipta Kerja (UUCK) that substituted the Laws on the Forest Destruction Prevention and Eradication (LFDPE) by inserting Article 110 A and 110 B. Then implementation regulation has been published in the form Government’s Regulation (GR) Number (No.) 24 / 2021 about The Procedures for Imposing Administrative Sanctions and Procedures for Non-Tax Revenue derived from Administrative Fines in Forestry Sector.
The facts showed that the regulation is criticized because it ignores law enforcement by prioritizing administrative sanction and could be the bad precedence to improve palm oil plantation (industrial) governance. On behalf of that, Sawit Watch registered the claim on GR No. 24 / 2021 to the Constitutional Court on Wednesday (20/9/2023).
Coordinator of Advocacy Team to claim Omnibus Law (UUCK), Janses E. Sihaloho emphasized that the GR would break the guarantee of certain law and people’s protection around the forests. “That is why we claim Chapter 3 of the GR because it would raise legal uncertainty. There are some contradictions among UUCK, the Laws in Government Regulation in Lieu of Cipta Kerja to be Laws and GR. The GR itself would regulate what UUCK and the Laws in Government Regulation in Lieu of Cipta Kerja never order. It also regulates what is excluded by LFDPE,” he said, as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT, Wednesday (20/9/2023).
Director of Sawit Watch, Achmad Surambo said that the policy would be the space for (many) companies to get the same violation in the future. The companies could cultivate in forest regions in forest region because there is something like ‘guarantee’ (to get bleaching again). The government should seriously solve the ‘too late’ palm oil plantations in forest regions by prioritizing to solve the villages in forest regions. For information, Ministry of Environment and Forestry revealed that about 25.863 villages are in and around forest regions. They consist of 9,2 million families.
“The government should focus on this. Sawit Watch noted that by 2023 there have been 1088 cases that many communities are in conflicts in palm oil plantations. They are mostly in tenant cases (62,5%) that could happen in forest regions,” Surambo said. (T2)
