Environment Minister Muhammad Jumhur Hidayat Calls for National Ecological Repentance Movement

Environment Minister Muhammad Jumhur Hidayat has called for a ‘National Ecological Repentance Movement’ as a collective step to restore Indonesia’s increasingly critical natural conditions. The appeal was made by Jumhur during a public lecture at the Harkat Negeri University (UHN) Hall in Tegal on Friday afternoon. In his presentation, Jumhur stressed that the current environmental damage is the result of the nation’s collective mistakes. Therefore, recovery efforts cannot be carried out partially but must be the shared responsibility of all elements of society. ‘Because everyone is guilty, everyone must repent so as not to repeat mistakes and work harder to ensure the glory of the environment. That is what I call the National Ecological Repentance Movement,’ Jumhur said before the UHN academic community. The government is currently finalising preparations for the movement, which is planned to be officially launched in August 2026. The movement encompasses various concrete actions on the ground, ranging from large-scale reforestation to strict supervision of the industrial sector. Jumhur also issued a stern warning to business actors in the extractive sector. He asked them to take full responsibility for restoring the environment through reclamation and replanting in former mining areas or land affected by their operations. Beyond physical action, the Environment Minister emphasised the importance of building environmental ethics amidst the challenges of global climate change. According to him, moral awareness towards nature must be the foundation of every economic and development policy. Echoing this sentiment, UHN Rector Sudirman Said welcomed the idea of National Ecological Repentance. The former Energy and Mineral Resources Minister stated that universities have a crucial role as a space for dialogue to generate solutions to the nation’s problems, including the environmental crisis. ‘A nation’s progress can only be achieved by maintaining a balance between science, economy, and ecology,’ Sudirman Said asserted, closing the public lecture session.