Govt defends plan to dissolve Bapedal

Govt defends plan to dissolve Bapedal

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government defended its plan to merge the Environmental
Impact Control Agency (Bapedal) with the Office of the State
Minister of Environment Friday as the most efficient way of
compliance with the reform movement.

State Minister for Administrative Reforms M. Feisal Tamin
explained that the merger will give more power to the Office of
the State Minister of Environment -- not only to formulate a
policy, but also to enforce it.

"Such a new formulation of the office will be stated in a
presidential decree on the merger; no decision has yet been taken
as the issue of the merger still constitutes discourse for now,"
he told reporters at his office.

These remarks came after a closed-door meeting with State
Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim and protesting
activists from groups including, among others, the Indonesian
Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Indonesian Center for
Environmental Law (ICEL), World Wildlife Fund Indonesia and the
Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (Yayasan Kehati).

The environmentalists questioned the reasons for the merger,
which they believed will not be beneficial to efforts to protect
the environment and natural resources, since the office of the
state ministry only has the authority to coordinate its
subordinate body.

Walhi chairwoman Emmy Hafild found that the draft of the
presidential decree, dated on Nov. 16, 2001, -- which was made
available to her office -- failed to put Law No. 23/1997 for the
establishment of Bapedal into consideration.

"The office of the state minister and Bapedal are really two
different institutions, but both can be held by the state
minister; the merger idea itself will be a violation of the law,"
she said.

The activists met earlier with the Indonesian Democratic Party
for Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan) faction at the House of
Representatives to seek support for the cancellation of the plan.

Emir Moeis, vice chairman of the House's Commission VIII
supervising, among others, environmental issues, said there will
be a hearing on the issue.

"We're afraid that the merger will terminate the Bapedal's
control function, while we understand that enforcement of the
environmental policy should be more powerful," he said.