President Prabowo Subianto plans to seize four to five million hectares (ha) of illegal land in 2026. The illegal land targeted for seizure includes palm oil plantations and illegal mining areas. 

This move follows the earlier seizure of four million hectares carried out by the Attorney General’s Office, specifically through the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes. 

“We may seize an additional four or five million hectares of land,” Prabowo said during the National Harvest and Food Self-Sufficiency Announcement event in Cilebar, Karawang, West Java, on January 7. 

The seizure of land linked to hundreds of illegal mining operations is also said to have safeguarded hundreds of trillions of rupiah in state funds. The objective, he said, is to prevent further leakage of public money. 

According to Prabowo, state funds should be fully enjoyed by the Indonesian people. He called on all cabinet members and officials to unite in fighting corruption and eradicating misconduct. “We must enforce the law and not hesitate,” he said. 

Targets IDR 126 Trillion in Revenue from Land Seizures in 2026 

Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin said there is potential administrative fine revenue from oil palm plantations and mining activities amounting to IDR 142.23 trillion (approx. USD 8.46 Mn) in 2026. The potential administrative fines consist of IDR 109.6 trillion from oil palm plantation companies and IDR 32.63 trillion from mining activities. 

“For 2026, there is potential administrative fine revenue from oil palm plantations and mining activities located within forest areas,” Burhanuddin said at the handover event for forest areas, administrative fine collections, and recovered state funds at the Attorney General’s Office in South Jakarta on December 24. 

The Attorney General’s Office has also handed over reclaimed forest areas and IDR 6.6 trillion in funds to the state. Assets transferred included reclaimed forest areas under Phase V, covering a total area of 896,969.143 hectares. 

In addition, the handover included IDR 2,344,965,750,000 in administrative fines collected by the Forest Area Control (PKH) Task Force, as well as IDR 4,280,328,440,469.74 in recovered state funds from the handling of corruption cases by the Attorney General’s Office. 

“This includes the submission of reports on the achievement of reclaiming four million hectares of forest areas, the results of Phase V reclamation of forest areas, the collection of administrative fines by the PKH Task Force, and the recovery of state finances,” Burhanuddin said in his speech. 

This article is published in partnership with Katadata 

Original article here