Forests for Tycoons

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Hundreds of major business groups are lining up to obtain concessions for 4.8 million hectares of forest. There is a lack of transparency and it creates inequality.

ON the podium, President Prabowo Subianto is an orator who speaks out strongly in defense of the people. He has said in many forums: the state’s assets cannot be controlled by a small number of people because that characterizes a failed state.

On the ground, the government has not departed from the old practice of defending a small number of tycoons through processes that are not transparent. This is also apparent from the distribution of forest control and management rights.

The government plans to issue Forest Concession Business Licenses (PBPH)—the new name for what was previously known as Forest Concession Rights, or PHP—for areas covering 4.8 million hectares. As of the end of 2023, there were 152 applicants. The total concession area is as large as West Java and Banten provinces combined. The regions with the most extensive areas of these forests are Kalimantan, Papua, Sumatra, Maluku, and Sulawesi.

The concession granting is being done differently from the way used in the Suharto era, when forests were divided up between a small number of tycoons for their timber to be exploited, then to be transformed into oil palm plantations or mining areas. The policy rolled out by Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto is to grant forest concessions for the carbon forests program. This includes managing forest ecosystems, including plant biomass and leaf litter and soil, which is preserved for the global carbon cycle.

This looks noble at first glance, but this concession policy still involves large businesses. The government is encouraging carbon industry development as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide new economic opportunities from the climate change agenda. But this practice has led to critics: without a comprehensive strategy, carbon trading is nothing but greenwashing.

At present, the concessions for carbon trading are held by the forestry, oil palm and mining sector giants. In West Papua and Southwest Papua, for example, there are Salawati Hijau Lestari and Sorong Hijau Ekosistem, which applied for a PBPH in 2022. In January 2025, the Forestry Ministry granted a 150,000-hectare forest concession. Salawati Hijau and Sorong Hijau are owned by Angelia Bonaventure Sudirman, granddaughter of Martias Fangiono, founder of the Surya Damai group, which subsequently established palm oil company First Resources Limited in Singapore.

Meanwhile, in Kalimantan, there are a number of companies believed to be affiliated with the Triputra Group, Integra Group (Indocabinet), Harita Group, and the Sinar Mas Group. These four huge business groups are involved in forestry exploitation sectors, from oil palm plantations to mining.

When the distribution of assets favors conglomerates that have for decades benefited from the forestry sector, indigenous communities and local people are reduced to being spectators. Tempo discovered that 67 companies applied for new concessions in areas overlapping with 310,000 hectares of customary land belonging to 37 indigenous communities. This is at odds with the government requirement that indigenous communities be given the same opportunity to benefit from the carbon economy.

Another major problem with the forest division program is the lack of transparency. Since May 2024, the Secretary-General of the Environment and Forestry Ministry—now the Forestry Ministry—has classified the PBPH process at the Directorate-General of Sustainable Forest Management as information not made available to the public. Since then, the Forestry Ministry Geospatial Information System, which is claimed to be a realization of forestry sector management, has not functioned. The PBPH map only shows company names, without any further details such as the area, license number, or type of business.

This secretive way the government has been granting licenses disadvantages the public. And the Job Creation Law has an article that adds a new business sector, namely multi-enterprise forestry. Companies working in this sector can run several types of businesses in one concession area. Conversely, the government has classified forestry as a high-risk industry. High risk should mean more transparent management.

President Prabowo should immediately halt this program that worsens inequality. If not, he will simply be repeating the hypocrisy of Joko Widodo’s speech in which he said, “we walk the talk, not only talk the talk.”

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine

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