Is Indonesian Plantation Land Controlled by a Few Individuals?

The World Bank denies ever releasing a report on land ownership in Indonesia, as claimed by Hanafi Rais, a politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN). Hanafi previously stated that, based on 2015 World Bank data, 74% of land is controlled by a handful of people. This statement supported his father, Amien Rais, the chairman of PAN's Honorary Council, who called the land certificate distribution program by the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency a "lie."

According to 2016 data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), several plantation areas are actually more widely controlled by smallholder farmers than large plantations. For example, the area of rubber plantations owned by smallholders reached 3.1 million hectares (ha), while the area of large plantations was only 552,000 ha. The same is true for coffee, cocoa, coconut, and clove plantations, where smallholder landholdings are larger than those of large plantations.

However, for palm oil, large plantations do control more land than smallholders. The area of large palm oil plantations reaches 7.3 million ha, while smallholder plantations only cover 4.6 million ha. Similarly, large tea plantations cover 64,000 ha, exceeding the 53,000 ha controlled by smallholders.

(Read Databoks: Who is the Minister Who Issued the Most Extensive Plantation Permits?)