Government partners with Interpol to investigate environmental crimes
The Ministry of Environment (KLH) has stated that the Indonesian Government is now officially partnering with the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) to strengthen law enforcement against national environmental crimes.
Minister of Environment Jumhur Hidayat told ANTARA during a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday that technical cooperation with Interpol has officially commenced through the formation of a working group. This group will soon be ready to develop a roadmap for targeting the intellectual authors of environmental crimes in the country.
“This is just the beginning. There will be a technical working group to detail the cooperation steps. The essence is that law enforcement must evolve from merely chasing perpetrators in the field, or ‘follow the perpetrator’, to also ‘follow the money’, ‘follow the corporation’, ‘follow the beneficial owner’, and ‘follow the mastermind’,” said Minister Jumhur Hidayat.
This decisive step, he continued, was taken in view of the massive ecological losses and economic injustices caused by environmental crimes, such as illegal logging, illegal fishing, wildlife trafficking, and illegal mining.
At the national level, Jumhur revealed reports from the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) for the period of 2023 to the first semester of 2024, which detected indications of mining crime transactions reaching approximately Rp684 trillion and environmental crimes approaching Rp200 trillion.
“PPATK also found transactions suspected to be related to unauthorised gold mining reaching Rp185 trillion, with a total fund turnover of up to Rp992 trillion, including indications of illegal gold flows to overseas markets,” said Minister of Environment Jumhur Hidayat.
Given the massive scale of these suspected transactions, he emphasised that eradication can no longer focus solely on field executors, but must instead track financing flows, controlling corporations, and the ultimate beneficial owners.
This point is considered equally important and urgent because, according to him, environmental damage is also correlated with high levels of vulnerability to natural disasters, which have significant impacts on loss of life, socio-economics, and regional economies.
For instance, based on calculations by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the losses from hydrometeorological disasters dominating throughout 2025 reached Rp22.8 trillion, with recovery costs being much higher, such as the flash floods in Sumatra which reached Rp56 trillion.
“The point is to restore and honour the environment, not to destroy it. Those who are currently destroying it must stop, and once they stop, we shall restore,” he said.