Environmental laws take care of their own sectors
Hira Jhamtani, Environmental & Globalization, Policy Analyst, Denpasar
Environment Day is a time to reflect on how the nation is doing in terms of sustainable environment management. The logical first step would be to look at some figures. Unfortunately there are no comprehensive figures. A State of the Environment Report is almost non-existent in the past few years. Even an attempt to provide a report on the overview of sustainable development practices by the State Ministry of Environment last year (Overview of the Implementation of Agenda 21 2002) contains some out of date data due to unavailability of information.
Nevertheless, there are figures that can illustrate the environmental crisis that Indonesia is facing. Indonesia is often cited as having the second largest tropical forest area in the world, but this natural resource has been disappearing at the rate of about two million hectares per year since 1996, according to a Forest Watch report in 2002. The official deforestation rate in the past year is 1.6 million to 2.4 million hectares per year.
Mangrove forests, estimated at 5.2 million hectares in 1982 was reduced to 2.4 million hectares in 1993 due to intensive conversion for cultivation activities. Although the country has the largest wetlands area in Asia, about 42.6 million hectares, only 33.8 million were left in 2002 (Wetlands International Indonesia Program, 2002).
During the last 50 years, damaged coral reef increased from 10 percent to 50 percent. Studies in 1995 by the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and in 2000 by COREMAP indicated that 41 percent of the nation's coral reefs are damaged, and only 6 percent are in a very good condition. While many marine fishing areas in Indonesia are already overfished.
Not much data is available on freshwater, but out of the 89 major watersheds in the country, 59 were officially declared very critical in 1998 (Ministry of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure Report, 2002). Similarly, data on air pollution in major cities is available only for the 1990s. A greenhouse gas emission inventory was last done in 1994 and even worse a marine pollution measurement was last done in the 1980s.
The lack of basic information and data on natural resources and environment leads to misuse, abuse and carelessness. It leads to a sense of false security that the nation is still rich in natural resources for many years to come. And therefore there is no sense of crisis despite the fact that environmental disasters and conflicts over resource use are increasing, leading to economic and social losses which, tends to lead to further ecological degradation.
Getting comprehensive, up-to-date and easily accessible data and information on the environment will take a long time and rigorous effort. Sound environmental management cannot wait for that, therefore policies based on precautionary principle become very important. Most policies on natural resources are exploitative, centralistic, sectoral and non-participatory. For example, about 20 laws and regulations plus five international conventions, involving 14 development sectors, regulate the utilization of marine and coastal resources.
Each law or regulation promotes the interests of the sector concerned. For instance regulation of fishery would tend to facilitate high fish production, but ignoring the need to conserve the mangroves as nursery grounds for fish and shrimp species. Often these regulations contradict each other.
This situation is aggravated by the confusion in undertaking decentralization in which local governments are more interested in exploiting resources and would often overturn environmental regulations formulated at the national level.
Even if some regulations are relatively sound such as the Act No.23/1997 on Environmental Management, the institution charged with implementing it (i.e. the State Ministry of Environment), is weak while the law enforcing agencies and the judicial systems often do not understand the provisions.
Thus implementation is often difficult or almost non-existent. In short, unless some real effective measures are taken to address this lack of environmental good governance, the nation would continue to experience environmental disaster and resource scarcity, which often leads to social conflicts.
But there should be light at the end of the dark tunnel. The Decree of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) No. IX/MPR/2001 on Agrarian Reform and Natural Resource Management mandates the government and the legislature to review all regulations on agrarian affairs and natural resources management and to revoke, revise and/or change all laws and implementing regulations that do not conform with this Decree.
It has not incorporated the precautionary principle in natural resources management, but at least provides for the need of sustainability and equitability principles in the policies. The State Ministry of Environment and several non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and universities initiated the process to formulate a bill on Natural Resources Management (RUUPSDA).
The draft bill proposes natural resources management based on holistic principles, sustainable development and good environmental governance. An important part of the process is the public consultation mechanism through polling and dialog with stakeholders. The team formed to undertake the process of formulating this law has began to conduct public consultation forums in 13 regions in Indonesia.
However, this process takes time and effort, and there are also efforts to separately formulate laws on relevant sectors, such as the water resource law and the mining law. If this continues, then the idea of housing regulations on the management of all natural resources under one umbrella law, to avoid duplication and inconsistency, would not materialize.
The government, legislators and the public need to make a resolution to support the RUUPSDA efforts and halt other processes that might create legal confusions all over again later on. There is a need to keep the light at the end of the tunnel burning.