In defense of land rights: A monitoring report on land conflicts in six Asian countries 86 In terms of commodity, the kind of plantation that contributed the highest number of agrarian conflict cases in 2017 is the oil palm plantation. Although it is the plantation commodity that yielded the highest foreign exchange revenue to the State, palm oil has a dark record of agrarian conflicts. The government’s license moratorium for oil palm plantations failed to reduce and resolve agrarian conflicts for it was not followed by a thorough review of issued licenses. In the last ten years, the area of palm oil plantations increased by an average of 5.9 percent. By 2016, the area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia was 11.67 million hectares.4 This pace of expansion was not accompanied by improvements in location license, business license systems and comprehensive impact studies of such plantations. Review of issued licenses is therefore now urgent. Aside from the plantation sector, it is worth noting that there has been a significant increase in conflicts in the property sector, which is linked to the development of toll roads, airports and railway networks in certain regions. It has been found that the provision of access facilities (roads, railroads, etc.) in an area is usually followed by property development in the form of housing projects, shopping malls, hotels, etc. The acquisition of land for infrastructure development by the government is worth noting too, for the Jokowi administration is pushing itself to complete all planned infrastructure constructions such as airports, highways, railways, and seaports. The planning is unfortunately not accompanied with pro-people land system and policy, so that conflicts erupt with them and local people are frequently evicted from their lands. ANGOC There are five main causes of the agrarian conflicts in land acquisition: (1) the planning process of projects do not welcome any public participation, resulting in problems on the site settlement; (2) land prices are set out in such a manner that landowners receive irrational payments for their lands; (3) corruption and blackmail in the acquisition process; (4) the mobilization of thugs, police and military personnel; and, (5) alternatives of compensation such as stipulated in the No. 2/2012 law for evicted people such as replaced lands, rehousing, capital distribution (share ownership), and other forms which are agreed upon by both parties. 4 Data from the General Directorate of Plantation of the Agricultural Ministry, 2016.