Abandoned Land Control in Indonesia: Key Mechanisms and Implications Under GR 48/2025
Author(s)
The Government has enacted Government Regulation Number 48 of 2025 on the Control of Abandoned Areas and Land (“GR 48/2025”), which revokes and replaces Government Regulation Number 20 of 2021 on the Control of Abandoned Areas and Land (“GR 20/2021”). In principle, GR 48/2025 serves as a regulatory reform aimed at accelerating the bureaucratic procedures in the control of abandoned land.
Land constitutes a limited natural resource bestowed by God Almighty upon the Indonesian nation and must therefore be distributed fairly among the people. Land must be cultivated, used, utilized, and maintained in order to achieve public prosperity and welfare. The existence of abandoned land reflects a form of injustice amid the current crisis and inequality in land ownership and land control in Indonesia. Land abandonment constitutes one of the grounds for the extinguishment of land rights as stipulated under Law Number 5 of 1960 on Basic Agrarian Principles (“Basic Agrarian Act”). Accordingly, legal instruments are required to regulate, control, and restore the productive use of abandoned land.
Under GR 48/2025, there are two principal categories of objects subject to control, namely abandoned areas and abandoned land. An abandoned area refers to a non-forest area that has not yet been encumbered with land rights but has already been granted a license, concession, or business permit, whether still valid or expired, which is intentionally left uncultivated, unused, and/or unutilized. Meanwhile, abandoned land refers to land held under land rights, management rights (hak pengelolaan) (“HPL”), and land acquired based on a Ground of Land Control (Dasar Penguasaan atas Tanah) (“DPT”) that are intentionally left uncultivated, unused, unutilized, and/or unmaintained.
This article focuses on the control mechanism for abandoned land.
I. Objects of Abandoned Land Control
Objects subject to abandoned land control include land held under ownership rights (hak milik), building use rights (hak guna bangunan) (“HGB”), cultivation rights (hak guna usaha) (“HGU”), rights of use (hak pakai), HPL, and DPT, subject to the following conditions:
a. Land held under ownership rights may only become an object of abandoned land control if it is not used, utilized, and/or maintained, resulting in any of the following conditions:
- Occupied by the public and converted into a residential settlement area;
- Continuously occupied by another party for 20 years without any legal relationship with the title holder; or
- Failure to fulfill the social function of land rights.
b. Land held under HGB, HGU, rights of use, HPL, and DPT may become objects of abandoned land control if such land is intentionally left uncultivated, unused, unutilized, and/or unmaintained for a minimum period of 2 years from the issuance date of the relevant land right or DPT.
Accordingly, the abandoned land control mechanism for land held under HGB, HGU, rights of use, HPL, and DPT may only commence after at least 2 years from the issuance of the relevant land right or DPT.
II. Mechanism for the Control of Abandoned Land
The implementation of abandoned land control consists of two principal stages, namely (i) the pre-control stage in the form of inventorying land indicated as abandoned; and (ii) the abandoned land control stage, which is divided into the following sub-stages:
a. Evaluation stage;
b. Warning stage; and
c. Determination stage.
Under GR 48/2025, the entire abandoned land control process, from evaluation to proposal for the determination, requires only 90 calendar days, significantly shorter than the abandoned land control mechanism under GR 20/2021, which required up to 525 calendar days plus 30 working days.
Inventory of Land Indicated as Abandoned Stage
The inventory of land indicated as abandoned (the “Inventory Stage”) is conducted by the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (“Minister of Land”), no earlier than 2 years after the issuance of the relevant land right or DPT. The final product of the Inventory Stage is data on land indicated as abandoned, which serves as the ground for the implementation of abandoned land control.
Evaluation Stage
The evaluation stage is conducted by a committee established by the Head of the Regional Office of the National Land Agency (“Regional Office Head”) based on data on land indicated as abandoned, within 12 calendar days through the following steps:
a. Notification of the evaluation stage to the holder of land rights, HPL holder, or DPT holder;
b. Examination of land rights, HPL, and/or DPT documents;
c. Examination of documents relating to the plan for cultivation, use, utilization, and/or maintenance of the land;
d. Factual inspection of the cultivation, use, utilization, and/or maintenance of the land; and
e. Delivery of the evaluation results to the holder of land rights, HPL holder, or DPT holder.
GR 48/2025 shortens the evaluation period from the previous 180 calendar days under GR 20/2021 to only 12 calendar days.
Subsequent Actions After the Evaluation Stage
If the evaluation results indicate that the holder of land rights, HPL holder, or DPT holder has failed to cultivate, use, utilize, and/or maintain the land under its ownership or control, the evaluation committee must:
a. Provide an opportunity to the holder of land rights, HPL holder, or DPT holder to cultivate, use, utilize, and/or maintain the land within a maximum period of 30 calendar days from receipt of the evaluation results; or
b. Specifically for land categorized as state/regional assets or assets of state-owned/regional-owned enterprises, the evaluation committee shall delivers a recommendation to the head of the relevant institution to cultivate, use, utilize, and/or maintain the land, and the abandoned land control process shall be declared completed.
Accordingly, for land categorized as state/regional assets or assets of state-owned/regional-owned enterprises, the abandoned land control process is completed at the evaluation stage upon the delivery of the recommendation by the evaluation committee to the head of the relevant institution.
GR 48/2025 also shortens the “opportunity period” for follow-up of the evaluation results from the previous 180 calendar days under GR 20/2021 to 30 calendar days.
Warning Stage
If the holder of land rights, HPL holder, or DPT holder intentionally continues to fail to cultivate, use, utilize, and/or maintain the land within the 30-calendar-day opportunity period, the Regional Office Head shall issue written warnings up to a maximum of three times. Each warning shall contain (a) an order to cultivate, use, utilize, and/or maintain the land within 14 calendar days from receipt of the written warning; and (b) applicable sanctions.
GR 48/2025 reduces the total duration of the warning stage from 165 calendar days under GR 20/2021 to 42 calendar days.
Proposal for Determination
If the holder of land rights, HPL holder, or DPT holder intentionally fails to comply with the third warning, the Regional Office Head must submit a proposal for the determination of abandoned land to the Minister of Land no later than 6 calendar days after the expiration of the third warning period.
GR 48/2025 shortens the period for submitting the proposal for the determination of abandoned land from the previous 30 working days after the expiration of the third warning period to no later than 6 calendar days thereafter.
From the time the land is proposed to be determined as abandoned land until the issuance of the abandoned land decree by the Minister of Land, the holder of land rights, HPL holder, or DPT holder is no longer entitled to cultivate, use, utilize, and/or maintain the land, and no legal actions may be conducted over the land, including the transfer of rights, extension of rights, and/or renewal of rights.
Determination Stage
The Minister of Land determines abandoned land by decree based on the proposal for the determination of abandoned land submitted by the Regional Office Head. The decree on the determination of abandoned land stipulate (a) extinguishment of land rights or HPL; (b) termination of the legal relationship between the holder of land rights or HPL holder and the abandoned land; (c) affirmation of the land as state land originating from abandoned land; and if only part of the land area is determined as abandoned land, the decree shall also contain (d) an order to revise the size of the land rights or HPL for the part not determined as abandoned land.
Specifically for land held under DPT, the decree on the determination of abandoned land shall stipulate (a) termination of the legal relationship between the DPT holder and the abandoned land and (b) affirmation of the land as state land originating from abandoned land.
Land determined as abandoned land shall become state land with the status of general state land reserve (tanah cadangan umum negara) (“TCUN”), namely state land originating from the determination of abandoned land or the release of land rights or HPL.
III. Utilization of State Land Originating from Abandoned Land/TCUN
The utilization of TCUN shall be determined by the Minister of Land and allocated for:
a. Agrarian reform, particularly through the distribution and redistribution of TCUN;
b. National strategic projects;
c. Land banks;
d. Other state reserves; and
e. Specific purposes as determined by the Minister of Land.
References:
1. Basic Agrarian Act
2. GR 48/2025
3. GR 20/2021