VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged communities to take advantage of the productive land provided by the government through social forest decrees (SK) and agrarian reform object decrees (TORA).

"The land that has been given the decree is actually used for productive activities. Do not transfer it to someone else," the President said during the handover of social forest decrees (SK), land reform object decrees (TORA), and land certificates to residents on the second day of his working visit to North Sumatra on Thursday.

Jokowi urged people to plant woody trees on 50 percent of the existing land and seasonal crops on the rest of the land.

Communities are allowed to use the land for which decrees have been issued for growing crops such as rice, corn, and soybeans, setting up plantations of coffee and fruits among others, or raising livestock under an agroforestry pattern, Jokowi said.

"Or, you can also develop a livestock business. If it is in the mangrove forest, you can also run a fishery business," the President said, according to a statement received in Jakarta on Thursday.

During Jokowi's visit, social forest decrees were handed over by the state to residents of 20 provinces, with a total of 722 decrees covering 469,670 hectares issued to more than 118 thousand families, the press release stated.

Provinces for which social forest decrees were issued included North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Lampung, Bangka Belitung Islands, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, and Gorontalo.

Decrees were also issued for people from the provinces of South Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Bali, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Maluku, North Maluku, and West Papua.

Meanwhile, land reform object decrees were given to residents of five provinces, with a total of 19 decrees covering an area of 30,724 hectares issued to residents of North Sumatra, Bangka Belitung, South Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua.

The government also submitted 12 decrees on customary forests and 2 indicative customary forest decrees for a total area of 21,288 hectares to 6,170 families.

Presidential Staff Office's (KSP) main expert staff Wandy Tuturoong had earlier confirmed that the government is currently drafting a governmental regulation (PP) on the status of land in national capital (IKN) Nusantara to prevent land speculators.

"This government regulation aims to clarify land ownership, and the status of land ownership will be based on data from the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN). This regulation is one of the derivative regulations of the State Capital Law that is currently being prepared by the government," Tuturoong informed in a press release issued here on Friday.

According to the expert staff, based on earlier reports, land speculators have been frequenting the IKN area, especially after President Joko Widodo announced the relocation of the national capital and the ratification of the State Capital Law. The presence of speculators has caused land prices in East Kalimantan to rise rapidly to even tenfold, he said.

It is common to find land speculators where there are investment projects, he added. (Antaranews)