The Minister of Environment and Forestry has issued Decision Letter No. SK.01/MENLHK/SETJEN/KUM.1/1/2022 Dated 05 January 2022 regarding Revocation of Forest Area Concession License. Based on the Attachment to the said Decision Letter, which contains the list of revoked company licenses, including 26 oil palm plantation companies in Papua Province with a total area of 681,029 ha, and 22 companies in West Papua Province with a total area of 382,071 ha.
Based on Pusaka’s monitoring and information from community networks, there have been deforestation activities in the oil palm plantation area of PT Permata Nusa Mandiri (PNM) in the Nimbokrang District, Jayapura Regency, Papua Province, in Sunday 2nd week of January 2022. Whereas it is known that PT PNM’s forestry concession permit which was issued in 2014, was revoked by the official Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 2022.
In the Pusaka’s Press Release (28/01/2022), the policy on improvement of natural resource governance, evaluation and sanctions for revocation of company business licenses revocation, must be followed by concrete actions and law enforcement, for the purpose of restoration of the community rights and environmental, which engage civil society organizations and carried out in a transparent manner.
“The regional and national governments should be taking proactive measures to follow up the evaluation results and the decision on sanctions of company business licenses revocation, by prohibiting company activities, enforcing the law and imposing criminal sanctions, penalty payment and compensation for affected communities and restoration of the environmental, as stipulated in the laws and regulations”, said Tigor G Hutapea, Pusaka Advocacy Division Staff.
The Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation demand the government should stop granting ease of licensing and issuing new licenses for public and private companies (domestic and foreign) which have been proven to have committed natural degradation activities and human rights violations.
Read more here: Press Release Pusaka – The Government Must Proactively Follow Up, 28 Jan
Ank, Jan 2022
