Decentralization not a better bet for environment

Decentralization not a better bet for environment

JAKARTA (JP): Years of relentless exploitation of the
country's rich natural resources have taken a terrible toll.

Forests are gone, many species of flora and fauna are
threatened or endangered and the archipelago's pristine coral
reefs are dying.

Non-governmental organizations and private institutions have
sounded the warning, but they argue the government appears to be
lacking a comprehensive plan to deal with the problem.

A new development could make matters worse.

It is feared the implementation of regional autonomy, with the
governing regulation criticized as still far from perfect, will
fuel more intensive destruction of the world-renowned natural
splendor.

Participants at a recent seminar here on decentralization and
environmental management faulted the regulation for lacking
adequate local legislative stipulations on protecting the
environment.

"Various regulations on environmental management and those on
natural resources, which have an impact on the ecosystem, are
still placing the authority with the central government and only
a small part to the provinces," Mas Achmad Santosa of the NGO
Indonesian Center for Environmental Law said on May 31.

He cited Law No. 23/1997 on environmental management,
government regulations No. 20/1990 on water pollution control and
No. 19/1999 on marine pollution and destruction control, as well
as Law No. 41/1999 on forestry as examples

"As a consequence of the decentralization regulation, there's
a need to prepare guidelines and strategies on law enforcement
and environmental compliance to enable mayoralties, regencies and
provinces to do the task of environmental management, including
to control environmental impact (as required by the regulation),"
Santosa said.

Government Regulation No. 25/2000 on the authority of the
central government and the provinces as autonomous regions, which
was issued in early May, is supposed to provide details on the
implementation of autonomy as stipulated in Law No. 22/1999 on
regional government.

Under the law, provinces, regencies and mayoralties will gain
greater autonomy to manage their own affairs, including on the
environment, in the maritime sphere, mining and energy and
forestry and plantations.

Santosa said the issue of decentralization of natural
resources management was more popular than the issue of
decentralization of environmental management even though the two
were strongly related.

"People prefer to talk about decentralization of natural
resources, which are more economically or profit-oriented,
instead of decentralization of environment management which is
considered a 'responsibility' or even by some people thought of
as a 'tragedy'."

Present problems

He urged the government to look at current environmental
problems in anticipation of the troubles that could lie ahead,
noting the prevalence of "failures".

He said "policy failure" was one of the potential problems
because of the many unholistic policies, including the 1945
Constitution, which failed to touch on the aspect of
environmental protection.

"The development of holistic policies should start with the
amendment of the 1945 Constitution as the source of policies on
natural resources and environmental management."

Old policies must be changed for the times, he added.

"The new policies should also integrate the interests of pro-
job, pro-people and pro-environment factors ... "

He named "implementation failure" as another obstacle, with
the need to transform members of the authorities, as the
executors of the policies, into professional, credible and
responsive officials with high integrity.

"I think this (implementation failure) is the most crucial
problem to be handled right away," Santosa said.

"Institutional failure," either in the central or local
government or community level, is another problem that cannot be
overlooked. He said it was evident in the partial views of
legislators in the House of Representatives.

Environmental issues are handled only by the House's
Commission VIII, he noted, instead of in cooperation with other
commissions, such as on forestry and trade and industry, with
pertinent interests.

"With the partial view, it's no wonder that an (environmental)
issue receives different responses from the House's members."

Open government is another issue.

Santosa noted the need for strong public control by mass
media, public interest lobbyists, legislative members, experts
and observers to ensure open and transparent measures in
protecting the environment.

"In Jakarta, the power of civil society (mass media,
lobbyists, legislative, experts and observers) in executing
public control is strong. Unfortunately, unlike Jakarta, the
local authorities are still not very open ... Decentralization of
environmental management won't be effective if such a practice is
still prevalent at local levels."

He urged local NGOs and communities to push for open
government.

Effective

The effectiveness of the regulation in protecting the
environment is a big question to many.

Leiden University professor of law Jan Michiel Otto said
the effectiveness of environmental management depended on many
factors, including the degree of legal certainty.

In his understanding, he added, full decentralization involved
four components: tasks, legal powers, resources and decision-
making power.

He noted there was a wave of decentralization in developing
countries in the 1960s and 1970s.

"However, they (the models) failed to produce the desired
results. They remained models on paper, the paper of the law and
the organization scheme," said Otto, who has conducted research
in Bandung, West Java.

He said that in most developing countries, the central
governments did give tasks and some legal powers to regional and
local governments. However, they did not provide enough resources
and decision-making power, with the people tending to rely on
private networks instead of local councils to achieve their
goals.

"Consequently, the lower levels of government had neither the
manpower nor the money, nor the political power, nor the
legitimacy, to be successful."

He said a precise policy on environmental management was
needed for Indonesia with its great regional differences.

"It is hard to see how local governments will function in
environmental planning and enforcement without strong
environmental management at the provincial level," he said. (ste)