InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA — Chairman of the Center for Law and Conflict Resolution (PURAKA), Ahmad Zazali, said remarks by Indonesia’s fifth president Megawati Soekarnoputri on deforestation caused by “red-carpet legislation” accurately describe the country’s current forestry condition. According to him, Riau Province stands as one of the clearest examples after contributing significantly to national deforestation over the past two decades.
Of Riau’s total land area of around 8.2 million hectares, natural forest cover has continued to shrink sharply. The main driver, Zazali noted, has been large-scale deforestation linked to permits granted to Industrial Timber Plantation (HTI) companies.
“The presence of these companies cannot be separated from permissive licensing policies issued by the central government, particularly the Ministry of Forestry in the past,” Zazali told InfoSAWIT on Monday (January 12, 2026).
In 1982, Riau still had around 6.4 million hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 78 percent of its land area. Massive forest loss began in the early 1990s following the entry of HTI companies, and intensified with oil palm expansion in the mid-1990s.
By 2005, natural forest cover had fallen to around 2.7 million hectares as HTI permits—now known as Forest Utilization Business Licenses (PBPH)—and plantation concessions continued to expand. By 2007, HTI concessions alone covered 1.9 million hectares, with about 58 percent located on peatlands. Oil palm plantations at that time had already reached 2.1 million hectares and are now estimated at 3.4 million hectares.
“This condition makes Riau highly vulnerable to haze disasters from land fires and increases the risk of future flooding,” Zazali stressed.
By 2025, natural forest cover in Riau is estimated to have declined further to just 1.3 million hectares. Ironically, Zazali noted, HTI companies operating in Riau have rarely faced legal consequences despite the scale of deforestation involved.
He recalled that between 2006 and 2008, 14 HTI companies affiliated with the APRIL and APP groups were named suspects in illegal logging cases. All investigations were later dropped in December 2008 after a change in leadership at the Riau Regional Police.
Deforestation has also severely impacted high conservation value areas such as the Tesso Nilo Landscape. Nine HTI companies hold permits totaling 169,920 hectares within the 337,500-hectare landscape, while the Tesso Nilo National Park covers only around 81,000 hectares.
“If examined honestly, the destruction of Sumatran elephant habitat in Tesso Nilo cannot be separated from the activities of HTI companies,” Zazali concluded. (T2)
