Deputy Human Rights Minister urges law enforcement on forest fires up to corporations

Deputy Human Rights Minister Mugiyanto is urging law enforcement to investigate corporate involvement in forest and land fires (karhutla) in Sumatra and Kalimantan, so that handling does not stop only at the perpetrators of burning on the ground.

Mugiyanto said the government needs to comprehensively identify the causes of the fires, including the parties behind the land burning as well as companies suspected of benefiting from the practice.

“When the fire is still burning, when smoke is still billowing everywhere, the first thing we must do is extinguish it. But, because we must find the root of the problem, and human rights work is not only downstream, but also upstream,” Mugiyanto said in Jakarta on Monday.

According to him, the investigation needs to distinguish between burning carried out by individuals for limited needs and large-scale land clearing practices related to business activities.

“And many friends in the civil coalition who are concerned about the environment are asking that enforcement not only stop at individual perpetrators,” he said.

Mugiyanto said the government needs to ascertain who carried out the burning and whether the act was done independently or linked to large companies.

“If we do not do that, next year when the dry season comes it will happen again,” he said.

He assessed that licensing issues and land governance also need to be examined, especially if burned land is subsequently reused for plantations.

“The problem then is the permit. That is why the President, for example, ordered the Governor of West Kalimantan regarding the permit,” Mugiyanto said.

According to him, the use of burning methods to clear land cannot be justified if it causes ecosystem damage and harms the community.

“Business is business, okay, because this is business, right? But the ethics. The ethics is respect for human rights, the environment, human rights, the surrounding community. That is what has not been widely complied with,” he said.

Mugiyanto stressed that law enforcement must proceed against anyone proven to be involved, both individuals and corporations. The Ministry of Human Rights, he said, will oversee the process to ensure the public’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is fulfilled.

“Companies or anyone involved, individuals must also be held accountable. But more than that, they must not escape legal responsibility if they are proven to have committed legal violations,” Mugiyanto said.