Bapedal gone, fears of environment abuse up

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.