Government Supervision of Oil Palm Plantations in Indonesia Legal Issues and Proposed Remedies

Palm oil is a major Indonesian export product, but governmental supervision of plantation corporationsʼ activities on the ground frequently fails, which leads to environmental damage as well as conflict between companies and communities. By employing a socio-legal approach, this study found that the legal framework of the development of oil palm plantations is imprecise, unclear and incomplete and, as a consequence, causes the governmentʼs weakness in supervising oil palm plantation operations. We discovered three main causes of this incompleteness of law in supervising oil palm plantations: the delay in establishing the implementing regulations, the absence of sanctions in case of non-compliance, and the use of imprecise words, and complex terms and language. In addressing such incompleteness, this study suggests drafting more detailed rules to minimize delegation to lower regulations, using more precise terms and concepts, and considering sanctions for officials who do not carry out their obligations. Furthermore, discretion can be an alternative to overcome the existing legal incompleteness in supervising oil palm plantation operations.