How to deal with environmental rift?

How to deal with environmental rift?

JAKARTA (JP): Non-governmental organizations should try to
work closer with the government in helping to settle
environmental disputes, the deputy of the Environmental Impact
Management Agency says.

"There has been increasing distrust between the government and
non-governmental organizations in the last few years," Nabiel
Makarim said yesterday at a discussion on out-of-court settlement
of environmental disputes.

"Non-governmental organizations should realize that,
especially at the regional level, the administration is the only
authority."

"Currently, both parties have created walls," he said.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) say the regional
administration does not care about environmental matters, and the
bureaucracy says the NGOs always put them in the wrong, he noted.

Nabiel told Asian and American participants of an
environmental resolution program that NGOs are actually vital to
out-of-court settlements.

"The only way to make conflicting parties equal in
negotiations is to have an NGO mediate, particularly if the
parties consist of a community and a corporation," he said.

However, with the current situation of distrust, Nabiel said
mediation is very difficult.

"We hope to create trust by showing that mediation works, but
this needs more publication of success stories," he said,
regretting that the media only highlights "exceptional" failures.

The discussion, organized by the Asia Foundation and the
Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, was the last part of a
one-month program. Twenty Asian participants took part in an
internship on "alternative dispute resolution" in the United
States for three weeks. The last week was spent in Indonesia for
exposure to the experience here in settling environment-related
cases.

This included a visit to Dukuh Tapak in Semarang, Central
Java, where an out-of-court settlement in 1992 succeeded in
resolving a conflict between residents and a number of factories.

The center's executive director, Mas Achmad Santosa, said
earlier that one of the problems with legal settlement of
environmental disputes is the lack of clout of the Office of the
State Minister of Environment, which only coordinates
implementation of government policies.

"It is the other ministries like the ministries of industry
and mines which have the power," he said.

However, environment law expert Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri said
yesterday that if the Office of State Minister of Environment
becomes a ministry with a portfolio, "no one will listen to it."

Koesnadi and a former judge of the State Administrative Court,
Paulus E. Lotulung, said there should be amendments to the 1982
Law regarding the need for material evidence of environmental
harm for one to be able to file a lawsuit.

"The law should also provide the possibility of legal action
to prevent pollution," Lotulung said.

Since the environment law became effective in 1982, Santosa
said, less than 20 cases have been settled in court.

He said that out-of-court settlements are also better because
of the long-term nature of an environmental solution.

"Environmental cases are not just a matter of losing and
winning, there is also the obligation of complying with
environmental standards," he said.

"However, there is no incentive for conflicting parties to
negotiate due to the low level of enforcement of the environment
law," Santosa said.

He also said there is low awareness on the part of the
bureaucracy on the need for the presence of a neutral party.

Participants from China, South Korea and Malaysia also said
out-of-court settlements were preferred in their countries due
mainly to cultural factors.

A participant from the United States said that 95 percent of
cases are usually settled out of court there.

The preference for out-of-court settlements in the U.S. is
because environment-related cases are low on the priority of
courts compared to criminal cases, Deborah Dalton of the
Environmental Protection Agency, said.

"Litigation also moves conflicting parties as far apart as
possible," she said. Cooperation, she added, is actually needed
to implement a court decision regarding steps to correct
environmental damage. (anr)