Prabowo Reclaims 6.2 Million Hectares of Plundered Land Valued at $25B, Pledging Seized Billions for Public Programs

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — President Prabowo Subianto announced on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, that the government has successfully reclaimed more than 6.2 million hectares (15.3 million acres) of plundered forest land and illegal mining concessions, with the recovered sovereign assets holding an estimated valuation of nearly Rp 400 trillion ($25.15 billion).

Speaking on the grounds of the Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) in South Jakarta, the President oversaw the formal deposit of Rp 13.24 trillion ($832.2 million) in recovered cash into the state treasury. The funds—spanning forestry administrative penalties, special criminal asset seizures, and downstream corporate tax collections—represent the latest haul in an accelerating multi-agency crackdown against environmental looting and illegal extraction.

For decades, unregulated palm oil operations and wildcat mines operated beyond the reach of the state, bleeding billions in uncollected taxes, destroying tropical ecosystems, and starving local public budgets. By mobilizing a joint enforcement apparatus across prosecutors, forest regulators, and tax authorities, the Prabowo administration is turning environmental reclamation into a key domestic revenue pillar. Channeling recovered asset windfalls into public infrastructure, school repairs, and civil servant wages aims to prove that anti-graft enforcement can directly insulate fiscal balances against external economic strains.

Redirecting Recovered Billions to Social Infrastructure

The head of state stressed that reclaiming national assets carries little meaning unless the economic value flows directly toward public welfare. Prabowo noted that the Rp 400 trillion in saved assets could fundamentally transform frontline community development, funding school rehabilitations, low-cost social housing, rural clinics, and antipoverty programs.

"With Rp 400 trillion, we can eliminate poverty; with Rp 400 trillion, think how many thousands of houses for our people and how many thousands of schools can be restored," Prabowo stated on Tuesday.

Pointing to the government's ongoing rehabilitation of 70,000 public schools with a budget allocation of roughly Rp 90 trillion, Prabowo argued that reclaiming state wealth provides the essential fiscal room needed to raise wages for teachers, judges, prosecutors, and civil servants, while subsidizing vulnerable households and funding irrigation repairs.

Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara confirmed that the Rp 13.24 trillion deposited by Satgas PKH has been entered into the state balance sheet as non-tax state revenue (PNBP) and direct tax receipts for fiscal year 2026. Suahasil explained that the funds will be deployed to cushion mandatory spending increases fueled by geopolitical instability in trade corridors like the Strait of Hormuz.

According to task force disclosures, the deposited funds comprise Rp 3.48 trillion in administrative forestry fines, Rp 1.54 trillion in special criminal non-tax revenue collected by the Attorney General's Office, and Rp 8.23 trillion in outstanding taxes retrieved from targeted corporate taxpayers. Over its two years of operation, Satgas PKH has returned a cumulative total of Rp 52 trillion to state coffers.

Reclaiming Millions of Hectares From Shadow Operators

The physical enforcement footprint of the task force has targeted illegal commercial activity across palm oil and mineral concessions. Since its establishment in February 2025, Satgas PKH has reclaimed 6,206,212 hectares of illicit oil palm plantations and 14,633 hectares of illegal mining concessions.

During Tuesday's eighth-phase land transfer, the task force officially handed over 259,230 hectares of land. Under the handover, 140,762 hectares of plantations were placed under the Ministry of Forestry to be managed by state plantation operator Agrinas Palma Nusantara, while 118,256 hectares of conservation and protected forests were allocated for state-directed ecological reforestation.

Prabowo cited the strategic containment of illegal tin smuggling in Bangka Belitung as a prime operational blueprint, noting that hardline raids in the mining haven allowed state tin producer PT Timah Tbk to reverse chronic operational losses and post a dramatic 900% surge in net profits within a single year.

A Firm Ultimatum: Step Aside or Face Prosecution

Addressing the assembled ministers and task force officers, Prabowo delivered an unsparing warning to government officials and bureaucratic personnel who collaborate with criminal syndicates or pocket kickbacks from natural resources.

"To everyone within this task force or across my administration: whoever does not wish to remain on the straight path, I invite you to step aside politely," Prabowo declared. "If you prefer to be loyal to those rapacious forces, go ahead."

The President pledged that state agencies will relentlessly hunt down corrupt actors, regardless of their financial resources, online influence networks, or political backers. Disclosing institutional rot accumulated over decades, Prabowo revealed that he has personally been targeted with repeated bribery overtures during his first two years in office.

"Never mind ministers and director generals—they even tried to bribe me," Prabowo said. "Over the past two years, they have attempted to bribe me multiple times."

Prabowo instructed task force leadership to promote clean, high-performing field personnel and bestow state honors on investigators who achieve breakthroughs. "Those who achieve merit must be promoted quickly and granted honor medals. That is how a nation is run: chase and capture the thieves, and promote the honorable," he emphasized.

Scaling the Forest Police to 70,000 Personnel

To prevent reclaimed parcels from sliding back into illegal hands, the administration is launching an aggressive scale-up of frontline surveillance capabilities. Prabowo observed that Indonesia's current roster of 4,500 forest rangers is hopelessly outmatched by the vast geographic scale of the country's tropical canopy.

To close the enforcement gap, the President has proposed an APBN allocation to expand the forest police force to 70,000 personnel over the next three to four years.

Following consultations with Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara, the administration has secured funding to recruit and deploy 21,000 new rangers in the 2027 state budget as the initial phase of the multi-year expansion. Director General of Budget Sudarto confirmed that the treasury has earmarked funding for the program.

Prabowo signaled that a similar personnel expansion will be extended to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise and other frontline maritime and transit watchdogs, ensuring that key ports and airstrips are fully secured against commodity smuggling rings.