Gov’t to Provide 938 Hectares for the People Through TORA Program
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution leads the Coordination Meeting on Accelerating the Agrarian Reform Program, PPTKH, and unproductive HPK as the TORA sources form forest area, in Jakarta, Monday (5/8). (Photo by: Coordinating Ministry for the Economy PR)
In a bid to implement Agrarian Reforms as the manifestation of the National Priority Programs, the Government has reserved unproductive Production Forest (HPK) areas covering 938,879 hectares and is set to open 39,229 hectares of new paddy fields in twenty provinces.
The Government has also reserved Land Objects for Agrarian Reform (TORA) from the addendum of Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI) covering 51,029 hectares from thirteen companies and confirmed nearly 264,579 hectares from forest area for transmigration settlement areas and public facilities.
“The landholders will have legal certainty and have access to further develop their business through certification. They are allowed to manage their lands for 35 year and the permit can be extended, but cannot be transferred,” Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution said in Jakarta, Monday (5/8).
The Government, Darmin continued, will also combine the program with the Smallholder Business Credit (KUR) so that landholders have the ease of getting capital to develop their businesses.
“We also want the TORA program to be part of the measures to resolve land conflicts and to become the main pillar of land redistribution,” he added.
Darmin further said that as one of the follow-ups to the approval of the Program for Settling Land Tenure in Forest Areas (PPTKH), a decree for the Release of Forest Area through a change of boundary will be issued by the President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo in the near future.
In the meantime, Minister of the Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar stated that the Agrarian Reforms became one of the important things to boost domestic economy. “The most important thing at the moment is that local governments can provide access to economic and social welfare for the people,” she said.
In addition, for the success of the Agrarian Reforms governors and regents/mayors are expected to:
- Play an important role in the process of redistribution and economic empowerment of TORA recipients, and is expected to be committed to implementing Agrarian Reforms and equitable resolution of agrarian conflicts.
- Allocate Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD) and human resources in their respective regions to support the implementation of the boundaries of the forest area so that the land certificates can be immediately issued.
- Optimizing Agrarian Reform Task Force performance at the provincial and regencies/municipalities level so that land conflicts in the regions can be resolved. (Humas Kemenko Perekonomian/ES)
Translated by: Galuh Wicaksono
Edited by: Muhammad Ersan Pamungkas
