Indonesia has moved to revoke or review the land rights held by 11 companies linked to forest and land fires in Kalimantan, in one of the strongest enforcement steps yet in this year's fire season on the island of Borneo.

Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning Minister Nusron Wahid announced the action on Monday, 9 November, following a recommendation from the National Police's Criminal Investigation Agency, known as Bareskrim. The companies operate in South, West and East Kalimantan, and the ministry has divided them into five groups, with outcomes ranging from full revocation to further field inspections.

The announcement was confirmed in reports on Tuesday, 10 November, after a coordination meeting chaired by Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachman in Jakarta.

Three firms lose their rights in full

Three companies will have their land cultivation rights, known as HGU, revoked entirely, covering a combined area of about 23,274 hectares in South and West Kalimantan. They are PT MIB in Banjar, South Kalimantan, PT RKA in Melawi, West Kalimantan, and PT SKM in Ketapang, West Kalimantan.

The ministry said fires had repeatedly affected their concessions, burned more than half of the land in each case, and exposed inadequate facilities and infrastructure to prevent or contain further outbreaks. Breaches of land-use conditions were also cited as grounds for the action.

One further company, in Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan, will lose access to land covering 2,300 hectares because its cultivation rights expired in 2020 and will not be renewed. Another company, PT SAE in Landak, West Kalimantan, faces partial revocation of its rights.

Other firms face refusal or review

The government will also refuse to issue new cultivation rights to three companies — PT ANI in Landak, PT BOS in Kapuas Hulu and PT AER in Ketapang, all in West Kalimantan — and will evaluate their plantation business licences.

Three more companies remain under review while officials carry out physical inspections and measure the land involved. They are PT STP and PT JMS, both in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, and PT API in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. Nusron said the ministry was still deciding whether their rights should be revoked in full or only in part.

"We are conducting a deeper review to determine whether the revocation will be total or partial; we are carrying out physical inspections in the field and measuring the available data," he said, according to reports of the announcement.

Foreign investors among the owners

Checks into the beneficial ownership of the 11 companies found investors from South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, alongside Indonesian investors. Dudung stressed that business permits and land-use rights granted by the state do not give companies freedom from environmental responsibilities.

The action comes amid a serious health emergency linked to the fires. Health Ministry figures recorded more than 400,000 cases of acute respiratory infections across seven Indonesian provinces by 2 November, as smoke from the country's most intense fires in 11 years spread across borders.

The ministry said draft decision letters for the measures were being prepared and would be announced soon. For communities living with the haze, the test will be whether the revocations are enforced and whether the land is restored, rather than simply changing hands.