PALMOILMAGAZINE, BOGOR — The Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS) has submitted an official request to President Prabowo Subianto, calling for legal protection for smallholder palm oil farmers whose plantations are located within designated forest areas. The letter, numbered 078/EX/SPKS/X/2025, was signed by SPKS National Chairman Sabarudin and sent in mid-October 2025.
In the letter, SPKS expressed its appreciation for President Prabowo’s efforts to safeguard Indonesia’s natural resources through the Forest Area Regulation Policy. However, the organization also voiced deep concern that the implementation of the policy could have negative impacts on smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on lands classified administratively as forest areas.
“For palm oil farmers, forest conservation is part of the vision for sustainable plantations. Yet many smallholders have no legal land rights and cannot access the Smallholders Replanting Program (PSR) because their land is categorized as forest area,” Sabarudin stated in the letter obtained by Palmoilmagazine.com.
SPKS identified several legal and regulatory issues contributing to this uncertainty:
- The land tenure settlement mechanism previously regulated under Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 88 of 2017 and replaced by Perpres No. 62 of 2023 on Agrarian Reform, has not been implemented effectively.
- Law No. 18 of 2013 on Forest Destruction Prevention and Eradication, as amended by Law No. 6 of 2023 (Job Creation Law), creates a risk of administrative sanctions for palm oil farmers who were never intended to be the targets of such enforcement.
- The newly issued Perpres No. 5 of 2025 on Forest Area Regulation, signed by President Prabowo, has raised anxiety among smallholders, who fear enforcement actions by the Forest Area Regulation Task Force.
In its petition, SPKS urged President Prabowo to review Government Regulation (PP) No. 45 of 2025, exclude smallholder farmers from the Task Force’s enforcement targets, and restore land dispute resolutions through the agrarian reform mechanism.
According to SPKS, these steps are crucial to ensure that forestry policies remain aligned with social justice and the economic sustainability of rural communities.
“Legal protection from the President will serve as a foundation for smallholders to build sustainable palm oil plantations and contribute to the national downstreaming program,” Sabarudin emphasized.
The open letter also serves as a moral and political appeal from Indonesia’s smallholder palm oil farmers, urging the government to ensure that forest governance reforms do not marginalize those who have long contributed to the nation’s palm oil production and sustainability. (P2)
