Bapedal gone, fears of environment abuse up

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The dissolution of the Environmental Impact Control Agency (Bapedal) has ignited fears that all previous efforts by the organization to conserve the environment will come to a standstill, activists said.

When President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued decrees No. 2/2002 and No. 4/2002 earlier this month, Bapedal was handling the cases of 23 environmental law violations -- including forest fires, mining activity, industrial activity, illegal logging, and sea pollution.

In addition, it was litigating three other cases to be settled out-of-court.

It remains unclear which institution will take over the agency's enforcement of environmental regulations. The presidential decrees state that Bapedal functions will be taken over by the State Minister for Environment Office, but do not empower it with law enforcement abilities.

Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) co-founder Mas Achmad Santosa said that the decrees ignored the agency's function as a mediator in environmental disputes as stipulated in Government Regulation No. 54/2000, the operational guidelines for the 1982 Environment Law.

"The decrees only stipulate that State Minister for Environment Office now has the authority to certify the management of toxic waste -- but not to control it," Santosa said recently.

He added that now there will be no institution authorized to interpret and assign feasibility studies on environmentally friendly activities, or develop the capacity and the capability of human resources in the regions.

"The government lied to the public when it said that the transfer of Bapedal duties to the state minister office would not matter to the efforts of environmental law enforcement," he said.

A coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including ICEL, the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi), the Indonesian World Wide Fund (WWF), and the Law and Community (HuMa), has announced plans to challenge the government's policy in court.

The groups have also announced their intention to file a judicial review with the Supreme Court over the presidential decrees later this week, arguing that the decrees violated many of higher-level regulations on environment.

"By law, the presidential decrees should be canceled," Walhi chairwoman Emmy Hafild said.

The decrees met strong opposition before they were enacted. A group of environmentalists asked the House of Representatives and State Minister for Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin to cancel the issuance of the decrees.

The activists even wrote President Megawati asking her to drop the policy.

The policy was sponsored by State Minister for Environment Nabiel Makarim, a former Bapedal chairman, who said he feared that his office would no longer have the operational functions used to be conducted by Bapedal.

The House has scheduled hearings with Feisal and Nabiel on Feb. 4 and Feb. 7 regarding the decrees.