Environmental campaign ruled by forest fires

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): The year 1994 has been filled with plenty of rhetorics about the need to preserve and protect the environment, but when push comes to the shove, Indonesia is virtually helpless, as was shown by the way it dealt with the forest fire.

The fires that raged in the forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra not only posed environmental hazards, but also health hazards because of a thick haze which drifted over to cover parts of the islands and also neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.

Indonesia's neighbors were left complaining and wondering about Jakarta's inaction over what must be billed as the biggest environmental catastrophe of the year.

The Ministry of Forestry estimated that between May and October, fires had smoldered over 5.11 million hectares of forests, bushes and grasslands in various parts of the country, mainly in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

When the haze worsened in August and September, officials acknowledged that it would require a massive operation, resources and organization to put out the fires, that by the time they got their act together, rain would probably have done the job given that the rainy season was coming anyway. They were wrong, the rainy season started late and the haze remained until October and in some parts of the country even to November.

It just goes to show that weather -- the severe and prolonged dry season was also partly blamed for starting the forest fires -- is unpredictable.

However, it was not total inaction on Indonesia's part. There was much talk about the need to prevent similar catastrophes in the future, and the debate turned to what started the fires, or more precisely who.

This immediately turned into a blaming game. The Ministry of Forestry said most of the fires were started by local and nomadic farmers who practice traditional methods of slash and burn cultivation.

Non-Governmental Organizations pointed their fingers at forest concessionaires who cleared the forests to make way for either timber or plantation estates. They said the Dayak, the dominant tribe in Kalimantan, have had age old experience in the practice of slash and burn cultivation and were unlikely to have lost control of their fires.

It would have been so much easier to blame the weather but that too would render the nation ineffective in the future.

The government agreed to launch a campaign to tighten control over the clearing of forest lands by concessionaires and also encourage local tribes to settle permanently.

There were some actions on Indonesia's part to mend its image in the world, in the face of endless criticisms about the way it manages its forests and protects its timber industry, which is still one of the country's prime exporters.

Even the World Bank has accused Indonesia of felling trees at a rate faster than sustainable levels.

However, the government insisted that it is doing all it can to protect the forests, and accused its foreign critics of using the issue simply to protect their own markets.

In the face of threats by industrialized countries to impose stringent environmental requirements, the government established an independent eco-labeling agency this year.

Headed by former state minister for population and environment Emil Salim, the body is racing against time to set the criteria for the environmentally friendly forest products. The trial for eco- labeling will take place next year.

The government is not blindly protecting the timber industry. Violators are being punished and there are plenty of them around. State enterprises have been assigned to take over concessionaires who fail to live up to the environmental standards set by the government.

However, one of Indonesia's public relations exercises backfired when Britain and the Netherlands banned television commercials put out by the Indonesian Forestry about how well Indonesia is managing its forests. Japan and several other countries have also threatened to follow suit.

Timber baron Muhamad (Bob) Hasan, chairman of the society, later suspended the commercial and promised to improve it.

Local environmental non-government organizations also intensified their pressure on the government. Six even went as far as suing President Soeharto in court.

Lead by the Indonesian Environmental Forum, the organizations filed a suit at the Jakarta State Administrative Court demanding the cancellation of a presidential decree that allowed the government to re-apportion Rp 400 billion ($190 million) in reforestation funds to the state aircraft industry, IPTN, which is developing a new plane.

The court allowed the hearing to take place but later decided to drop it, saying that it had no authority to question the presidential decree.

This is about the only environmental case to reach a court this year worth mentioning, despite the government's tough talk on prosecuting polluters and other violators of the 1982 Environmental Law.

In the majority of cases the government appears to prefer the persuasive approach and not resort to legal procedures.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja has a reason for this -- the court tends to let violators off lightly, some even escaping conviction completely.

The law apparatus, it seems, has not caught on to environmental awareness fever that has been gripping the rest of the nation.

Police and the attorney general office said they still lack the expertise in handling environmental cases to be able to prosecute cases effectively.

In the last five years police have managed to bring only 12 convictions under the 1982 law, two of them in 1994.

Under these conditions Sarwono and his Environmental Impact Management Agency has been attempting to deal face to face with polluters or potential polluters.

Three giant companies that have been the target of non- governmental organizations' criticisms -- PT Inti Indorayon Utama (pulp and paper), PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (oil) and PT Freeport Indonesia (copper mining) -- have been asked to voluntarily undertake independent environmental auditing.

Sarwono is also planning to introduce a rating system for the industries, in terms of their environmental record.