A general view of a palm oil plantation in Siak regency, Riau province, Indonesia, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsJAKARTA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Some 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) of oil palm plantations found in areas designated as forests in Indonesia are expected to be returned to the state to be converted back into forests, a government official said late on Tuesday. While 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres) of the country's nearly 17 million hectares of palm plantation have been found in forests, only owners of plantations with a combined size of 1.67 million hectares have been identified, forestry ministry secretary general Bambang Hendroyono told reporters. Indonesia's chief security minister Mahfud MD has threatened to pursue legal action against palm oil companies that use land illegally after the Thursday deadline passes. Indonesia has launched several programmes to improve governance in its massive palm oil industry, amid criticism by environmentalists of the crop's impact on deforestation.

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Persons: Willy Kurniawan, Bambang Hendroyono, Bambang, Mahfud, Bernadette Christina, Gayatri Suroyo, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Officials, Thomson Locations: Siak, Riau province, Indonesia, Rights JAKARTA