Jakarta,(20/9)

1. WALHI welcomes the issuance of this Presidential Instruction after a long time the draft of this Presidential Instruction has been on the President’s table.
2. This Presidential Instruction is a good initial step for restructuring natural source management, especially in the palm oil plantation sector.
3. In addition to licensing evaluation, we also encourage law enforcement efforts for violation of laws and regulations committed by corporations. Having this Presidential Instruction, we also encourage the government to review their regulation that hamper such law enforcement effort and possibly this moratorium Presidential Instruction ineffective as stated in article 51 of Government Regulation 104/2015
4. This step shall be continued by affirming the government’s position to refuse discussing the Palm Oil Bill.
5. Palm oil plantation productivity shall be directed to efforts in providing support for palm oil farmers.
6. In a long term, ideally, this moratorium is carried out within 25 years as suggested by WALHI in previous policy paper because we believe that environment recovery requires long time.
7. This Presidential Instruction shall also in line with government’s commitment to address issue on inequality in terms of ownership structure and agrarian ownership. The licensing evaluation process must not be separated and must be an inseparable part of Agrarian Reform framework which becomes President’s priority program. Moratorium shall target the issuance of HGU in APL, not only those originating from the release of forest areas, considering conflict in APL is also very high.
8. To urge an open process and information particularly regarding license evaluation and to open a meaningful active public engagement.
9. At the end, we also encourage for a just transition to happen for the people and environment, as well as ecosystem recovery.