Regulations on spatial planning and land management should be included among top reform priorities in the cabinet president-elect Prabowo Subianto will form after he is inaugurated on Oct. 20. This is because these two functions are directly related to land, including inland water, marine areas, airspace and subterranean resources, all of which are Indonesia’s natural assets.
Without judicious spatial planning, the drive for economic development could come at the cost of environmental sustain- ability. Indonesia must balance the use of its land for economic, social and cultural purposes with the need for conservation and climate change mitigation.
According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the country has a land area of 188 million hectares that is divided into two administrative designations: forest area and area for other uses (APL).
APL refers to land used for purposes other than forest and is seen as production zones. This classification has not changed, despite discrepancies with current land use and land cover realities, creating ambiguity and uncertainty in land administration.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry reports that 120.3 million ha, or 64 percent of Indonesia’s total landmass, are classified as state forest area and fall under its jurisdiction. However, based on land cover analysis, 31.8 million ha, or 26.4 percent of the designated state forest area, no longer fulfill the definition of forests due to degraded land cover.
In reality, these areas have low carbon stocks and include production land cultivated by communities for agriculture, grasslands, transmigration programs, rice fields, settlements and public infrastructure, such as airports and seaports.
On the other hand, the ministry’s data also show that the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry/National Land Agency (BPN) regulates and manages 67.7 million ha, or 36 percent of the total landmass designated as production land (AP).
However, around 7 million ha of APL have forest cover that ecologically meets the terminology and criteria for their classification as a forest area.
Furthermore, communities could not obtain land certification for the production land they own and cultivate, from the government via the agrarian ministry, because they are seen to be violating the law.
Such incompatible realities indicate that spatial planning and land administration governance in Indonesia need review and reform.
To address the misalignment of land use, it is timely to reintroduce the “fit for purpose” principle in spatial planning, meaning that planning and use of space (land) should be in accordance with the specific needs and objectives that have been set.
The principle means that spatial planning should be in alignment with government policies and designed to support the expected functions of an area, ranging from production to protection and preservation, to achieve a well-defined goal. For example, areas that function as rice fields, gardens or settlements may not be classified as a state forest area.
Land management related to use/utilization and tenure must be regulated in such a way that land is used efficiently and effectively, ensuring there is no waste in land use and that each part of an area is used fit for purpose. This is crucial for Indonesia, where land problems, including overlapping land claims, land tenure and land speculation, have been perpetual issues that need to be resolved.
Spatial planning needs to take into account the local community’s life needs, population growth and expectations. This includes access to public facilities, green spaces, infrastructure, irrigation and rice fields.
Hence, it should be flexible enough to adapt to changing needs in the future.
The fit for purpose principle should be adopted and manifest- ed in the Land Bank Agency, a sui generis (special institution) established in Law No. 11/2020 on job creation that is tasked with managing state or abandoned and unproductive land for converting into productive use, while simultaneously carrying out equitable development efforts.
A well-managed land bank could spur economic growth by reducing land-related barriers to investment and infrastructure development. This could improve the business environment, attract investment, help reduce poverty by creating jobs and in- crease access to food and energy production, as well as housing. It can also reduce land conflicts.
Under the fit for purpose principle, the agrarian ministry ad- ministers spatial planning and land use tenure while the forestry ministry administers and supervises forests and the environment, but no longer has authority on land use tenure.
For technical arrangements, the Land Bank Agency will take over the current function of the forestry ministry in managing ecologically non-forest areas as a representation of state control.
Consequently, with the transfer of ecologically non-forest areas to the Land Bank Agency, their utilization is adjusted in line with the fit for purpose spatial planning.
This will indirectly address the accusation of deforestation, which is actually misinformed due to the fact that much of the forest area claimed by the forestry ministry no longer has forest cover.
Managing non-forest areas with fit for purpose spatial planning will bring about many benefits to the people. It will provide additional land for socioeconomic activities, notably for agriculture and agroforestry, food security, green energy development and other commodity- based industries. The fit for purpose framework will also provide suitable areas for conservation, afforestation and reforestation toward a green economy.
The Land Bank Agency will administer land redistribution and certification for communities in former forest areas, which will hopefully open new opportunities for income-generating activities and improve quality of life for otherwise landless people. The agency will be able to accelerate the completion of tenurial settlements.
Under such a scenario, if all ecologically non-forest areas be- come more productive under the APL classification, our ecological forest cover area would be 95.5 million ha, or 51.7 percent of the country’s total land. This consists of 88.5 million ha of forestland plus an additional 7 million ha of ecological forestland in APLs.
Forest areas will remain the largest portion of total land, compared to agricultural land at 31.2 percent and land for other uses at 17.1 percent.
Two policy recommendations need to be implemented to expedite spatial regularity and improve forestry governance and productivity.
The first is to unify and merge the management of forest spatial planning and land use tenure, or land allocation planning, which is now under the forestry ministry, into the agrarian ministry as the sole, national spatial planning institution. This will realize a single land administration.
Second, it is imperative to restore the basic duties and functions of the forestry ministry in managing forest areas for specific functions and purposes, such as production, protection and conservation. The ministry’s land use and land al- location authority must be rescinded and transferred to the agrarian ministry.
Author: Sofyan Djalil, Former Agrarian and Spatial Planning Minister and Former Head of National Land Agency, & Chief Executive Officer of Indonesian Business Council
This article is originally published Jakarta Post in September 2024
