Menhut Reveals the Reason for the Revocation of 22 PBHP Permits in 3 Provinces

JAKARTA - Minister of Forestry (Menhut) Raja Juli Antoni revealed the reason for the revocation of 22 company permits that have land concessions for the Perizinan Berusaha Pemanfaatan Hutan (PBPH) concession in the West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Aceh provinces due to President Prabowo Subianto's order.

"The revocation of 22 (PBPH permits) is the result of a limited meeting, which is limited by Mr. Prabowo, I am with him (the president)," Raja Juli said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 28.

He explained, after the limited meeting (ratas) in London, England, with the decision to revoke 22 PBPH permits, he said, then it was conveyed by the Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) and the Forest Area Control Task Force (Satgas PKH).

"The day after (the ratas) was announced (the revocation of 22 permits) by Mr. Mensesneg and the PKH Task Force. So, we just revoked these 22 PBPH permits, both natural forests and plantation forests," he explained.

However, the decision can only be enforced with administrative follow-up on Monday, February 2, 2026 through a decision letter revoking the permit valid in three provinces.

"Because I was in London (at that time) only administratively, on Monday I signed it formally and it was valid in the three provinces," he explained.

According to him, the revocation of the permits for PBHP, Industrial Park Forests (HTI) and Natural Forests spread across the three provinces affected by the flood disaster is certainly a concern for the government.

"Although they are not the only or main cause of flooding, we evaluate their contribution to worsening flooding, worsening ecosystems and absorption in the three provinces," he said.

"So, this is a firm order from President Prabowo Subianto that I have executed," said the Deputy Minister of Land and Spatial Planning / Deputy Head of the National Land Agency, acting as Deputy Head of the IKN Authority.

Previously, the Minister of Finance, Raja Juli Antoni, immediately revoked 22 company permits that held PBPH land concessions because they were considered problematic and detrimental to the community, as well as the environment. This is in accordance with the president's instructions at the previous meeting in Hambalang, West Java,

"At the President's instructions, I will revoke 22 PBPH with an area of 1,012,016 hectares, including in Sumatra with an area of 116,168 hectares. I will write the SK for the revocation," he said at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta.

With the lifting of this, in the past one year, the government has disciplined the problematic PBPH with an area of approximately 1.5 million hectares.

Previously, in February, King Juli said that the Ministry of Forestry had revoked 18 PBPH with an area of approximately 500 thousand hectares.

On February 3, Menhut also revoked 18 PBPH covering half a million hectares, plus one million hectares. "So, there has been a crackdown on about 1.5 million hectares of our forests," he said.