Minister asked to punish plantation firms

JAKARTA (JP): The provincial office of the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations in West Kalimantan is seeking the revocation of the licenses of 21 palm oil and rubber plantation companies in the province.

The office's head, Karsan Sukardi, said Friday that he would call on the minister to terminate the licenses of the 21 plantation companies because they had deserted large tracts of land.

He was quoted by the daily Kompas as saying that the forest area provided to the 21 companies totaled 142,000 hectares.

Nine of the companies are located in the Pontianak district, seven in Sambas, four in Ketapang and one in Sintang.

Data from the office showed that there were a total of 164 palm oil plantation companies in the province, both from domestic and foreign investments, managing some 2.3 million hectares of land.

A provincial legislator, Darwis Abubakar, also insisted the government revoke the plantation companies' licenses since they were only interested in cutting and selling the timber on their acquired lots.

The state-owned news agency Antara reported Saturday that 131 plantation companies in Central Kalimantan, which had obtained permits, also failed to realize their investment commitments.

Statistics from the provincial plantation office said that 175 plantation companies had received licenses to replant and manage a total of 1.91 million hectares. (rei)