30 Nov 2015
A joint team formed by the North Sumatra Provincial Government involving 150 North Sumatra Forestry Police (Polhut) personnel, the TNI, the Polri, the BPN, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Satpol PP and related agencies destroyed levees of Budi's shrimp ponds using two excavators covering almost 40 hectares of land.
Meanwhile, the forest recovery team felled oil palm plants using two chainsaws in the UD Sawita plantation (Sutrisno alias A Kam), director, covering 60 hectares of land, and Ayub alias Leo's land in Dusun Tepi, Gandu Lubuk Kertang.
Head of the Forest Security Division of the North Sumatra Provincial Forestry Office, A Sibuea, as the Head of the Field Operations Executive, said in Langkat, Sunday (29/11), that the operation was carried out based on an order from the Governor of North Sumatra.
"The operation in Lubuk Kertang Brandan Barat Village, Langkat, will start from November 27th until December 1st, 2015. On December 2nd and the following days, the operation will move to another location, but the location is secret. One thing is for sure, it will be in the HP and HL forest areas. This forest recovery operation was carried out because the oil palm plantation and shrimp ponds were located in illegal mangrove HP and HT areas," A Sibuea said.
He explained that more than 650 hectares of HP and HL coastal forests in Lubuk Kertang Brandan Barat had been converted into an oil palm plantation, based on a fraudulent notarial deed.
"The rest of the land will soon be returned. The HP and HL areas that have been controlled will soon be rehabilitated, like what the Forestry Office did on the land next to ours today," Sibuea said.
He said that there were already mangrove plants and Forestry Planks in the location. Before the mangroves were planted, the land was an oil palm plantation. Rehabilitation is carried out gradually to restore the growth of marine biota. This operation was led by the Head of the Forest Protection Division of the North Sumatra Forestry Office, Ir. Juliani Siregar MAP, who is also the Head of the Team, he explained.
Sibuea admitted that before the forest recovery operation, plantation and shrimp pond business owners were asked to vacate their lands. He also admitted that Sutrisno alias A Kam was once tried in the Medan District Court and sentenced to six months in prison with a suspended sentence, without detention, in 2013. However, A Kam's plantation business continued to operate in the HP and HT areas. "There was no resistance from the encroachers. If they object, we are ready to be sued. There was no violence. Before the recovery process, we had sent them a notification," Sibuea explained.
Information obtained from the North Sumatra Forestry Office said that today (November 30), the North Sumatra Conservation of Natural Resources Center (BBKSAD) of the Ministry of the Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia carried out a Recovery and Control Operation on the encroachment of the Wildlife Conservation Area (KSDA) that was converted into an oil palm plantation in Tapak Kuda Village and Pematang Sentang Village in Tanjungpura District, Langkat. (misno)
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