JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian authorities will hand over more land that has been seized in probes into illegal palm plantations to the new state company Agrinas Palma Nusantara, officials said on Wednesday, as part of a push to clean up the industry’s global image.
Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, launched an anti-corruption effort this year, facing criticism that palm oil plantations are a major driver of deforestation.
Prosecutors on Wednesday handed over to Agrinas 216,997 hectares (536,211 acres) of plantation areas confiscated from 109 companies, Attorney General official Febrie Adriansyah said, adding to more than 221,000 hectares handed over earlier this month.
Agrinas is expected to continue running the plantations.
“Agrinas Palma must be ready with their leadership to make sure the production will not drop, and should even be increased,” said Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, who is leading the forest management effort, adding that Agrinas would be assisted by other state plantation firms.
In January, President Prabowo Subianto set up a group to punish companies operating in designated forest areas without permits. The task force is allowed to seize the land, including palm oil plantations operating in forest-designated areas.
The plantations being given to Agrinas were part of an area of around 1 million hectares the task force has confiscated.
Authorities will go through a verification process for the rest of the area and aims to hand over more plantations to Agrinas, Sjafrie told reporters.
Areas found to be no longer feasible for commercial operation may be re-forested, a task force official said.
(Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by John Mair and Sonali Paul)
