Indonesia has seized millions of hectares of land from resource companies and revoked several permits over alleged environmental violations, in what critics describe as an arbitrary crackdown by President Prabowo Subianto that is deterring investors from south-east Asia’s largest economy.
Since launching a campaign in March last year, the government has confiscated and taken over about 5mn hectares of land from palm oil and mining companies for allegedly operating in forest areas illegally. More than 100 companies have been penalised, and Prabowo has said an additional 4-5mn hectares could be seized this year.
His government has also revoked permits of 28 resource companies operating in more than 1mn hectares of land for alleged breach of environmental rules that Jakarta says exacerbated deadly floods late last year, and has vowed to transfer the operations to state-owned enterprises.