PT Cenderawasih Jaya Mandiri, a sugar-cane company operating in Merauke Regency has been threatened with losing their operational area. The government has warned the company because it is not fully operational in line with the permits it has received.
The head of the forestry and plantation agency in Merauke, Efendi Kanan, revealed on Tuesday (23/9) that the company was not operating properly. It has been given a permit to clear 200 hectares of land, but has only planted around 5 hectares.
“It is not working well, so for the time being we will limit the land they can clear and will not give additional timber use permits. They should not clear land before finishing work on the land they have already cleared. Let’s see first, if planting occurs on land we have already given permits for, and only then we will give further permits” Efendi said.
The company in question have still to finish planting on 200 hectares of land, but they have applied for permits to clear new land. Because of this the agency will not give any more permits, and the Provincial government has sent the company a warning letter.
“They company says it is still working, but there has been no progress in the field, so we will not give any more land-clearing permits. We have the obligation to monitor and supervise their field operations. The biggest problem they are facing, according to them, is a crop disease they have not been able to bring under control,” he revealed.
On the question of whether the company was threatened with expulsion from Merauke Regency, Efendi made clear that that would depend on whether the company was serious about its investment or not.
“There is a limit if a company has been given a location permit but is seen to be incapable of working the land. After that there are various stages in a process to stop a company, they would have to be sent a warning letter once, twice, three times, if that doesn’t work it means their permit will be revoked”, he said
He added, that the warning letters were sent by the provincial government, because the provincial government also gives companies permits to operate in a regency or city as well as the regency/city level permits.
“The entity that sends the warning is the one that gave the permits. Their business permits were given by the Governor, not the Bupati. It must be the government that sends the three letters,” he confirmed.
Source: Suluh Papua http://suluhpapua.com/read/2014/09/25/tidak-beroperasi-pt-cjm-terancam-hengkang/
[awasmifee comment: PT Cenderawasih Jaya Mandiri is owned by the Rajawali Group, which also has another plantation on an adjacent area of land, operated by PT Karya Bumi Papua. It is not the only plantation company in the area to have run into problems. Medco’s industrial forestry operation nearby recently stopped working after its operation became economically unviable, and both Medco and Rajawali’s plans caused extensive conflict between villages even before any land was cleared or sugar-cane planted. The aftermath of those conflicts remain, regardless of whether a business succeeds or fails.]