InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – The Center for Study and Legal Advocacy of Natural Resources (PUSTAKA ALAM) has revealed inconsistencies between the claims made by the Forest Area Control Task Force (Satgas PKH) and the actual conditions on the ground regarding the reacquisition of palm oil land. As of October 1, 2025, the Satgas PKH claimed to have successfully reclaimed 3.4 million hectares of forest area, of which approximately 1.5 million hectares were handed over to PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara.

However, PUSTAKA ALAM's findings suggest that the data does not fully reflect the real situation. Muhamad Zainal Arifin, Director of PUSTAKA ALAM, pointed out that the working meeting results between Commission VI of the House of Representatives and PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara on September 23, 2025, showed a different picture. Of the 833,413 hectares of land handed over to Agrinas in Stages I–III, only 61% were actually planted with palm oil, while the remaining 39% were empty land.

"This finding should be a warning to the government to review the Satgas PKH reports. Not all land claimed to be reacquired is active palm oil plantations. Even Agrinas itself admitted before the DPR that many of the Task Force's data versions are inaccurate," said Zainal in a statement to InfoSAWIT on Friday (17/10/2025).

Empty Land and Data Inaccuracy

PUSTAKA ALAM's review of the Satgas PKH's Stage IV handover to PT Agrinas Palma Nusantara shows that out of the total 674,178 hectares of reacquired land, the majority were not productive plantations. In Central Kalimantan, for instance, a company was said to have handed over 8,696 hectares, but only 2.33 hectares were planted with palm oil.

Zainal argued that the data presented by the Satgas PKH does not reflect the real conditions. "If data like this is reported to the President, then the President is actually being misled by figures that do not reflect the reality on the ground. Some of the claimed land is merely shrubs, swamps, or even areas with high conservation value (HCV)," he asserted.

PUSTAKA ALAM believes the data discrepancy points to two major possibilities: either much of the claimed land was not active palm oil plantation—thus not meeting the legal criteria for violations—or there is an indication of data exaggeration to meet performance targets. Zainal also highlighted cases where companies were asked to hand over land that was not legally theirs, violating the legal principle of nemo plus juris. (T2)