JakartaPost-June 23
The Forestry Ministry and the Garuda Task Force will strengthen enforcement steps at Tesso Nilo National Park to rehabilitate 3.7 million hectares of forest that have been misused. “The Tesso Nilo National Park is the President’s strategic target in rehabilitating forest areas and the results will be announced on Aug. 17,” the ministry’s law enforcement director general, Dwi Januanto, said in Jakarta on Friday, as quoted by Antara news agency. “We’ve received support from all elements in the ministry […] to rehabilitate forests through a comprehensive and humanistic approach.” The Garuda Task Force was established by Government Regulation No. 5/2025 on forest areas enforcement (PKH). The task force includes personnel from the Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police. The task force has started operations at the 81,739 ha Tesso Nilo National Park. About 40,000 ha of the national park’s area have been opened and illegally planted with oil palms. The government is aiming to rehabilitate the forest area in Pelalawan regency, Riau, through a labor-intensive rehabilitation scheme, restoring the ecosystem and comprehensive law enforcement. Dwi emphasized the importance of cross-sectoral support to overcome the lack of forest rangers who are not sufficient to secure Indonesia’s vast forests. He quoted Garuda Task Force information which said the national park was currently in a concerning condition. The elephant population, for example, has declined in the past 20 years and the environment has suffered from degradation due to illegal activities by settlers in the forest area. About 15,000 people live in the national park area, but only 10 percent of these are indigenous residents. The task force has 380 personnel deployed at 13 locations around the national park, and has installed entrance gates, guard posts and started to remove illegal settlers through persuasive means rather than force. Some of the residents have voluntarily left the national park. The task force has also recorded that 1,805 land certificates have been issued in the national park, which are being verified together with the National Land Agency. However, on Wednesday in Pekanbaru, thousands of people from Pelalawan regency staged a rally in front of the Riau governor’s office protesting their relocation from the national park. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2025/06/23/forestry-ministry-to-strengthen-enforcement-at-tesso-nilo-national-park.html.
