The revocation of forestry, palm oil and mining permits involving huge concession areas, as announced by Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jan 6), is unprecedented in Indonesian history. This move is mainly targeted at providing more equitable access to communities, increasing land productivity and investment effectiveness, and strengthening governance in the granting of land-based permits.

While global fire emissions reached unprecedentedly high levels in July and August this year, as recently announced by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Indonesian palm oil and pulpwood concessions contributed close to 0% of these global records.