When Cutting Down a Forest is 'Not Deforestation': Elaborate Efforts to Exploit Loopholes in Indonesia's Zero-Deforestation Pledge for Palm Oil Development

The forest around the Village of Singgersing, Subulussalam, Aceh was safe, we thought. Through a participatory land-use planning (PLUP) process, community members had designated the standing forests around 5,215 hectares as protected. In addition, its biodiversity and carbon stocks, the Singgersing forest also contained the Silangit-langit Waterfalls — clear water cascading over rock ledges amid the forest — a natural retreat for local tourists.

It was jarring when the Rainforest Action Network reported on March 14, 2024, that tracts of the forest that had been designated as protected, had been clearcut over the previous months. Bulldozers were piling up the trees and leveled the hillsides in preparation for oil palm planting.  The Silangit-langit waterfall was choked with debris, its cascading waters murky brown, laden with silt.

The story of how this happened illuminates how powerful, well-resourced interests use sophisticated and not deceptive strategies to exploit any loopholes to Indonesia’s deforestation free palm oil pledge — proving these loopholes are big enough to drive lumber trucks through.

According to the Indonesian “Zero Deforestation Pledge”, banning any oil palm planting on forested lands, it is allowed to cut down even pristine rainforest and bulldoze the denuded land hillsides to plant oil palm trees if the land in question is zoned as Other Land Uses (in Indonesian terms, an APL Certificate).  Land with an APL Certificate is considered ‘not forested’, despite any trees standing on that land.

Earthworm Foundation, on behalf of its members, investigated how the community driven efforts to protect the forest were subverted. It found that a newly formed palm oil plantation, PT SPT (Sawit Panen Terus, or Continuous Oil Palm Harvesting in English) held the APL Certificate. It had arrived at this certificate by systematically collecting names and identity cards of residents in Singgersing, who got compensation for a small payment of approximately IDR 2 million (or USD 127). In return they signed agreements to sell the forested land in question to PT SPT. It is not clear on the basis that these individuals had the right to claim much less sell the land. This transferring of community land ownership was not sufficiently vetted by the local land office and was hidden from concerned community members that worked with Earthworm Foundation. The land office granted PT SPT land ownership over this track of forest, and then PT SPT arranged to have it classified as APL, which granted them the right to clear the forest without repercussions.

What did we learn from this situation?

• Land rights are essential: Although the participating communities in Singgersing Village had pledged to protect the forest via the Participatory Land-Use Plan (PLUP), those signing this agreement did not possess land rights over this track of land. Often, land rights are not officially established in Indonesia and are often held as part of customary tradition.
• Sophisticated and well-resourced interests are looking to exploit customary land rights and the APL loophole. When land rights are not well established for tracts of forest, powerful interests will exploit this ambiguity and uncertainty to secure land use rights to expand palm oil planting.
• It is urgent to have local government regulations to support commitments made by PLUP. PLUP’s make good land use plans with local buy-in, but they lack legal or regulatory power. It is urgently needed to incorporate the PLUP into village regulations, and then to link village regulations based on the PLUP to the District’s Land Use Planning policy and regulations. This is a policy recommendation that we are pursuing together with Earthworm.

The Leuser Alas-Singkil River-basin (LASR) project consortium raised the issue of this clearing of a forest with the local government. They could not take any action because cutting down this stand of trees on hundreds of hectares was not deforestation because land with an APL certificate.

We suspect that this example of PT SPT gaining land rights and then subverting the Zero Deforestation ban is not isolated. As long as there is a legal loophole with APL certified land, and there are forest lands that communities do not manage with clear land use policies, these cases will continue to occur.

Something positive did come out of this. The residents of Singgersing, including indigenous communities, are proving they can take on these powerful interests. They have successfully petitioned the Ministry of Forestry and Environment in Jakarta to establish an Indigenous Community Forest (Hutan Adat) for the remaining forests of Singgersing that fall within the PLUP.

This will give them legal rights to manage the remaining forest as they see fit, and to impede further schemes by outside actors to gain control over their forest resources.