Govt urged to involve public in policies

Govt urged to involve public in policies

JAKARTA (JP): Environmentalists have warned that without
public participation, some World Bank-funded environmental
policies were doomed to fail.

Mas Achmad Santosa and Hira Jhamtani urged members of the
public on Friday to take a critical look at the issue. They cited
how industrial sector policies had been pried open through
Indonesia's adoption of International Monetary Fund (IMF)
programs which had consequently led the country's natural
resources to practically be overexploited.

"Political parties must make the issue a priority," Santosa,
executive director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law
(ICEL), said at a news conference.

Six government regulations are currently being deliberated by
the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) of the
office of environment ministry. Santosa claims the regulations
will soon become the "next casualties" and would fail because the
public has not been consulted.

The regulations concerned are on toxic waste; air pollution;
water pollution; sea pollution; environmental impact analysis;
and out-of-court environmental dispute settlements.

The regulations -- expected to become effective bylaws of the
much-praised No. 23/1997 Law on Environmental Management -- are
slated to be endorsed on Feb. 9.

The first casualty cited by the green activists was a
government regulation on forest concessions issued Jan. 27 by the
forestry ministry. Jhamtani of the National Consortium for Nature
and Forest Conservation in Indonesia (Konphalindo) said the
decree was "made without public involvement".

Santoso said the regulation was no better than a previous
ruling produced in 1970 -- which many experts said failed to
protect the environment.

Jhamtani also used the media conference to draw attention to
how President B.J. Habibie's administration has given low
priority to environmental protection, as shown by the appointment
of Panangian Siregar as state minister of environment.

Rather than launching strict measures, the minister
recommended -- through Bapedal which he chairs -- the importation
of clay waste from Singapore. He dismissed environmentalists' and
local people's criticism about the move by saying it was simply a
"business" matter.

Jhamtani argued it was the very reason why both the IMF and
the World Bank should demand transparency in environmental
policies when they extend future aid packages.

Otherwise, she said, "the two bodies would only be sponsoring
environmental destruction". She cited the controversial
development of Kedungombo Dam in Central Java in the 1990s, where
thousands of impoverished villagers were forced to relocate
without decent compensation.

On Friday, visiting U.S. environmental lawyer David B. Hunter
of the Washington-based Center for International Environmental
Law (CIEL) urged the World Bank to demand transparency from
Indonesia in its sponsored projects.

The World Bank should increase the "level of details" of its
programs, he said. "(So) the fund will be used better... to
produce greater environmental impact," Hunter said. (aan)