President Jokowi Urges Land Certificate Beneficiaries for Optimum Land Utilization

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo distributes Decrees of Social Forest and Land Objects for Agrarian Reform (TORA) to people in Humbang Hasundutan regency, North Sumatra province (02/03) (Photo by: BPMI of Presidential Secretariat)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo Thursday (02/03) urged land certificate beneficiaries in Humbang Hasundutan regency, North Sumatra province to immediately utilize and optimize the land given by the Government.

“After receiving these decrees, both TORA Decree and Customary Forest Decree, I urge you all to utilize and optimize the land immediately. Do not let it abandoned,” President Jokowi said during the Handover of Decrees of Social Forest and Land Objects for Agrarian Reform (TORA) to certificate beneficiaries in Humbang Hasundutan regency, North Sumatera province.

The President also reminded that the land must be optimized for productive activities, adding that, the certificate beneficiaries were also requested not to sell or loan the land considering it is valuable.

On that occasion, the Head of State said that the Government will not hesitate to revoke decrees, if the land is not optimally utilized. There are three million hectares of abandoned land, he continued, which decree was revoked by the Government.

President Jokowi further called on local communities to continue to preserve forests. If the certificate beneficiaries want to cooperate with private company or bank to manage the land, he reminded to be cautious and prudent.

All must be well calculated, he added.

Furthermore, President Jokowi appealed to Minister of the Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya to provide assistance to the people in managing social forests. It is expected that the certificate beneficiaries can manage the land properly so that it will be productive and the land certificate given by the Government can be upgraded to land ownership certificate (SHM).

For the record, Social Forest Decree is distributed to 20 provinces and Decree of Land Objects for Agrarian Reform (TORA) is distributed to five provinces.

“As many as 722 Social Forest Decrees covering an area of 469.679 hectares of land were distributed for 118 thousand beneficiaries, 12 Customary Forest Decrees were distributed, and two Indicative Decrees of Customary Forest covering an area of 21,288 hectares of land for 6,170 beneficiaries,” Siti Nurbaya remarked. (BPMI of Presidential Secretariat/UN) (AP/MUR)