INTRODUCTION
In mid-July, the Government announced that it will start confiscating land that has not been, for a period of at least 2 years, developed or used for any economic activities.
The regulatory regime, giving the Government the power to determine and confiscate “abandoned” land, has been in existence since 2021. However, the Government is only now signalling its clear intention to begin making use of this power on a large-scale basis.
It is very important to understand that, while the Government may well be primarily concerned with undeveloped and unused agricultural land, the Government’s power to confiscate undeveloped and unused land, which it determines to have been “abandoned”, extends far beyond the agricultural sector and includes mining concession land as well as all certificated land. There is also no minimum area requirement for “abandoned” land that may be confiscated.
Given the shortage of land in Indonesia and the legitimate economic needs of an already huge and growing population, the Government’s obvious concern about the failure to make proper use of land is a reasonable one. However, the potential for misuse of this “abandoned” land determination and confiscation power seems to be very considerable.
In this article, the writer will review the regulatory regime for determining and confiscating “abandoned” land before considering the potential implications of the same for both mining and other commercial/industrial users of land as well as for individual landowners.
Authors:
Bill Sullivan
Email: bsullivan@cteolaw.com
Christian Teo
Email: cteo@cteolaw.com
Claudius Novabianto
Email: cnbianto@cteolaw.com